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Food Chain (Worm/Evolve Quest)

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[X] Sneak in and get an idea of what they look like? Are they injured and we could likely scare them off?
 
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Chapter 23
  • Threadmarks
    • The Uprights are still there, what now?
    [X] Find somewhere else to sleep tonight.
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    I contemplate it for a few minutes before deciding it isn't worth it. The one sitting up is probably keeping watch, the Uprights are smart enough to do that, and I know that they are really good at watching movement, so sneaking up to kill them is off the table. I could probably sneak into my bucket without issue, but that would leave me really vulnerable when I try to sleep, if I even could sleep knowing that there are Uprights so close by.

    My jaw suddenly splits wide as a yawn blindsides me, and I let out a small chirp as it passes, shaking out my body to dismiss the rush of sleepiness. Waiting isn't going to work since they don't look to be going anywhere, so I am going to have to find somewhere else to sleep tonight. Recalling my loose mental map of the area, I quickly narrow down that my best option would be somewhere along the waterline, so I turn around and start heading that way. I angle myself so that I am moving past my nest and further away from the mass of Uprights I saw earlier today, doing that does take me closer to all the wolves I smelled earlier, but I should be far enough away for the water to cover my smell.

    I travel along the last row of buildings before the stone transitions to sand, all of them some level of destroyed and abandoned. There are plenty of spots that I could squeeze into among the loose bits of rubble, but I want to get a bit further way from my nest first, and maybe find something softer to sleep against than the gray stone that everything is made from. Not that there are any plants to make bedding from around.

    One of the bigger problems I am going across though is my ability to see reliably. The further I go, fewer of the Uprights' artificial lights are active, making the area progressively darker before seemingly evening out. It's not to the point that I will become blind anything soon, but it does make details on the edge of my vision a lot harder to pick out until I get closer. That, combined with my already—

    There is a deep snapping Crack that emerges from the water's direction, sounding like a sheet of ice snapping if said sheet of ice was massive, it is a deeply unsettling sound that makes me freeze in place because it doesn't fit. The weather here has been warm, and the water is cold, but nowhere near cold enough to form ice.

    The feelings that the sound caused are chased away before I can even identify them by a wave of dizziness and pain and hunger. My stomach simultaneously wants to empty itself and while I feel myself growing hungrier, the combination of which feels awful. My whole body hurts like I was slammed into a tree on all sides, but my injured blade pulses in time with my hearts with pain a step above that even.

    Then just as fast as they came, the feelings disappear and I find myself curled up in a pile of loose rock inside one of the buildings. My senses are heightened, scanning the area with my sense of smell and searching for any smell that it out of place. But there isn't anything. No increase in Upright smell, nothing moving across the stone ground, no other bust of pain if I focus on any spot around me. Nothing. I still stay on high alert for a few minutes until I am sure nothing is around.

    What was that? The feeling was like that technology that the Uprights have the hurts to look at, but it came from the direction of the water and I didn't feel it coming at all. Where is the technology that did it? Even focusing my senses in the direction of the shore doesn't give me a bit of uneasiness. Can the Uprights do that other ways? Probably not or they would have done it when I darted past those two that broke into the rodent colony space.

    I don't know the answers and I don't really have a way to find them, so I do my best to push them out of mind and focus on what I was trying to do in the first place. The sudden rush of battle sapped the last of my energy, even if I didn't actually fight, and I am already in a safe spot, so I decide to just curl up and sleep here. This close to the beach, the sounds of all the water help drown out the last dredges of pain and overeager hunger that the burst brought on.

    -{/\}-

    My sleep was far less pleasant, if I even managed to sleep. I am pretty sure that I was half awake all night, waiting for something to happen, but it didn't. The sun starts shining, and I watch as the area gets more and more illuminated before I give up on falling all the way asleep. Uncurling, I stretch out as much as I can in the small space and examine the haphazard stack of broken stone around me. It is a bit dusty but otherwise empty, no traces of anything living here, which makes sense because I can't detect any food around.

    I don't need to hunt, and the water is right nearby, so I can get a drink whenever, but I have a bit of restlessness inside that is telling me to do something. I don't really know what though because nothing needs to be done, and I can just stay here.

    /|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
    I'll say this, Wraith isn't currently smart enough to make long term plans with any complexity beyond maybe 'I should eat tomorrow' or 'Those rodents were easy to kill, I should focus on those when I find them' type deal. A very day-to-day Quest right now.

    What do you do today? The sun has just risen over the horizon, not that you can see that, of course. (The two heist voted options will be done today, highest one first; unless something disrupts the action, of course.)
    [X] Hunt:
    -[X] In the water.
    -[X] In the area around your nest.
    [X] Sneak around and try to examine that place with all the wolves.
    [X] Try to study the Uprights, they seem to have made the whole area into their nest.
    [X] Try to study the Uprights' technology? Though you don't really know that stuff…
    [X] Investigate your nest and see if the Uprights are still there.
    -[X] If they are, move on.
    -[X] If they are not, see if they did anything to your nest.
    -[X] Write-In: (what do you do?)
    [X] Go back to the nest of the two Uprights that you originally woke up captured by?
    [X] Write-In:
    (Note: Write-In's must be simple in direction or concept. Your votes are instincts, not complex thoughts.)
    (Votes are done in the approval style, where you can vote for more than one option that you like.)
     
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Investigate your nest and see if the Uprights are still there.
    -[X] If they are, send a phantom at them and return later.
    -[X] If they are not, see if they did anything to your nest.

    [X] Hunt:
    -[X] In the water.
     
    [X] Try to study the Uprights' technology? Though you don't really know that stuff…
    [X] Investigate your nest and see if the Uprights are still there.
    -[X] Reassess after.
     
    Vote closed
  • Voting
    • Scheduled vote count started by ecoolasice on Oct 21, 2024 at 5:14 AM, finished with 6 posts and 6 votes.
    • [X] Investigate your nest and see if the Uprights are still there.
      -[X] Reassess after.
      [X] Hunt:
      -[X] In the water.
      [X] Try to study the Uprights' technology? Though you don't really know that stuff…
      [X] Investigate your nest and see if the Uprights are still there.
      -[X] If they are, send a phantom at them and return later.
      -[X] If they are not, see if they did anything to your nest.
    Click to expand...
     
  • Voting
    • Chapter 24
  • Threadmarks
    • What do you do today?
    [X] Hunt:
    -[X] In the water. (8 Votes)

    [X] Investigate your nest and see if the Uprights are still there.
    -[X] Reassess after. (3 Votes, won via QM choice)
    I'm going to choose this one because I set up the vote wrong for the nest investigation option.
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    Of course, staying in one place isn't going to help, so no matter how much I want to, I can't actually sit still for very long. Slipping out of the rocks after about fifteen minutes, I stretch out fully. Doing another scan of the area with all my senses turns up nothing.

    I do a check over my body and feel that most aches from yesterday are gone, just a few lingering tugs of soreness around my joints. Pulling my blade up, I twist it and look at the injured section, seeing that it is mostly healed, I take the back of one claw and rub along the discolored line. Doing so sends a small lance of pain through me and I can feel that it is weaker than it should be, but doing a few test swings tells me that it is manageable so long as I don't overuse the limb.

    The crashing of waves on the shore behind the building reaches my ears and I feel my stomach. Whatever happened last night lowered the amount of food I have stored, so I should probably go hunting again. Avoiding the small pincer claw creatures. When I get bigger, I'll kill all of them.

    Gliding out of the building, I journey around the side and quickly reach the sand. Part of me still wants to be mad at the water for my blade's injury, it was small, yes, but it hurt a lot. Another part of me doesn't really care and that is the side I decide to lean on, I can't really afford to be upset with the water right now anyway.

    Reaching the water's edge, I look out to the edge of my sight and try to feel for even the smallest twinge of pain, some hint of whatever happened last night. I don't feel anything of the sort. With that failure, I turn my attention to the water itself and hesitantly look for any anger or negativity but get nothing like that. It is just as calm and big as before. Bowing down, I take a few gulps of water and prepare to enter on a fresh hunt. Before I can, though, I catch a trace of something in the air.

    Spinning in its direction, I try to analyze the smell, but it is a mess of conflicting scents, all being drowned out by the saltwater's overbearing presence. It is food, though. I think. Floating along the sand, water lapping in out of visual range in my peripheral vision, I follow the odor and let myself enjoy the feeling of my knees brushing through the sand.

    The smell steadily grows, and I hear the sounds of activity only a little bit sooner than I can see it. Washed up on the beach is a fish of some kind surrounded by a bunch of birds. They must have spotted me though because they fly off almost as soon as I get within sight of them.

    Moving forward, I scan the area, but nothing comes into focus, so I turn my attention to the fish. It's really big, bigger than me for sure, though part of it is missing, probably eaten by the birds. It is also somewhat fresh, so I do another scan of the area before setting into the corpse.

    Directing energy though the carcass is harder due to its size, it keeps trying to move back into its natural motion. To combat the issue, I end up only guiding energy through part of it, sucking up the liquid essence eagerly, before moving and gorging myself again. My stomach quickly fills up, though I have to move around the corpse of the fish a few times to hunt down the last bits of nutrients needed to fill up my second stomach.

    I feel the energy around me shift as soon as I hit that point, and I realize that I should probably have looked for somewhere to hide to summon my egg without worry. There wasn't anything from the direction I came, so I keep moving, angling back towards the building because I can just hide in one of those if I don't see any spots son the beach. I end up finding nothing on the sand, which leads me to squeezing into one of the destroyed buildings and let the churning energy take shape around me, curling up and falling apart.

    /|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
    I've seen snakeheads mentioned a few times, but from what I've found they are a freshwater fish, the Bay is saltwater. On another note, I've been rolling a handful of dice to what stuff you might find, and you got quite lucky today. Combined with your votes? Short chapter is short.

    What do you upgrade?
    [X][Evolve] Write-In:

    After you hatch, do you still want to go into the ocean?
    [X][Action] Yes.
    [X][Action] No, move onto investigating your nest.
    (Note: Write-In's must be simple in direction or concept. Your votes are instincts, not complex thoughts.)
    (Votes are done in the approval style, where you can vote for more than one option that you like.)

    Your random stat bonus went to Smell today, all around a good ability, bringing it from 0/100 to 5/100.
    You can find your current upgrade page below this post in a few moments, marked as informational.
     
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    Metamorphosis III
  • Informational
    • Please note, you will naturally grow independent of this chart. Because of this, most things are measured in percentages for a better frame of reference; to that point, '0' doesn't mean no skill, just nothing additional. Upon eating ~2.5 your body weight all at once, you have a moderate window to enter metamorphosis.

    Upon entering metamorphosis you gain 12 points, plus 1 per prior metamorphosis, you can spend wherever you want on this chart. You cannot save points, any unspent will be lost. Each option has its own traits that you can unlock as you level them up, you can only see the next one in line. Every metamorphosis, a random ability will be rolled to gain a free 5 points, to represent natural adaptations.

    There may end up being overlap or repeated abilities. Depending on the ability, those may do nothing or increase the power.

    You had 15 Points to spend.

    Updated to Chapter 24's Vote results.
    • Senses: Governs, smell, sight, hearing, and methods of detecting and understanding your environment.
      • Sight: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Crest I': You can now see 10% further.
      • Hearing: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Reverberations I ': You can now hear 10% further.
      • Smell: 5/100 +5 via Random allocation.
        • At 10, unlock 'Scent I': You can now smell 10% further.
      • Airflow: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Xenovibrissae I': You can now sense changes in the air from 10% further.
    • Movement: Governs your overall speed, as well as things like teleportation.
      • Base Speed: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Glide I': You move 5% faster overall.
      • Burst Speed: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Sprint I': When 'running' you gain an additional 10% movement speed.
      • Warp: 1/100
        • At 15, unlock 'Warp': You temporarily subsume yourself into one of the world's natural energy fields, teleporting yourself forward a short distance in a chosen direction.
      • Climb Speed: 7/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Climb I': When ascending a surface, you are slowed down 20% less.
    • Stealth: Governs your ability to hide and remain unnoticed. Some parts of this stat are intrinsic, and does not need to be invested in to advance, though you may speed it up. No matter your path, stealth will remain an important part of your build.
      • Noisiness: 20/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
        • At 30, unlock 'Muffle II': All your actions are 15% quieter. (This is a replacement, not an addition.)
          • Echoey I: Your actions bounce off your surroundings in slightly odd manners, making it harder to pinpoint the source of any sounds you make.
          • Muffle I: All your actions are 10% quieter.
      • Camouflage: 0/50
        • At 10, unlock 'Concealment': When emerging from metamorphosis, gain a color or pattern on your body that makes you blend in better while in the environment that you metamorphosed in.
      • Sneak Attack: 20/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
        • At 30, unlock 'Pounce II': When initiating combat, you gain a 15% damage boost for 7 seconds. (This is a replacement, not an addition.)
          • Shock: When attacking from an unnoticed position, your target is temporarily disoriented and has a slightly increased likelihood of stumbling, tripping or otherwise falling prone without direct action.
          • Pounce I: When initiating combat, you gain a 10% damage boost for 5 seconds.
    • Defenses: Governs your armor, as well as your general toughness.
      • Armor Coverage: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Armor I': When emerging from metamorphosis, you gain a limited carapace.
      • Heartiness: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Healthy I': You gain 10% more HP.
      • Energy Resistance: 0/100
        • At 15, unlock 'Conductive I': You gain a 10% damage resistance to 'energy' based damage.
    • Energy: Governs your stamina as well as how quickly you can reuse your abilities.
      • Capacity: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Stamina I': You can stay awake 5% longer and be 'active' for 5% more of that time.
      • Cooldowns: 0/100
        • At 20: unlock 'Energy Redistribution': Your 'Innate Abilities' are able to be re-triggered 15% faster.
      • Sleep: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Startle I': You can awaken moderately faster from sleep.
      • Feeding: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Stuffing I': You gain the ability to eat 50% faster.
    • Combat: Governs your strength as well as technical skill in fighting.
      • Blade Sharpness: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Shock Absorption I': The tips of your blades become better at absorbing shock, hurting less upon impacting something they cannot piece.
      • Strength: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Fiber Density I': You become 5% stronger overall.
      • Technique: 0/100
        • At 10, unlock 'Combo I': You become better are utilizing both your blades and claws in tandem.
    • Innate Ability: Governs powers and skills that Wraiths naturally have. This stat is intrinsic, and does not need to be invested in to advance, though you may speed it up. No matter your path, you will eventually master all four main abilities of a Wraith.
      • Warp Blast: 16/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
        • At 30, unlock 'Increase Distance I': Now when you Warp Blast, you are able to travel a further distance before rematerializing.
          • Warp Blast: You briefly overwhelm your natural capacity for energy, forcing yourself to teleport a short distance and expel the excess in a devastating blast.
      • Abduction: 15/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
        • At 30, unlock 'Disorientation': Immediately after you and your target are returned to your original position, the target is briefly intensely disoriented, which you may capitalize on.
          • Abduction: You hijack the natural attraction between creatures and ride it towards a target, attempting to grapple them before being recalled to your original position by the energy deficit.
      • Phantom: 23/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
        • At 30, unlock 'Clarity': Significantly reduce the visual 'noise' from your Phantom, making it harder to identify it as the mental projection it is.
          • Phantom: When activated, an imperfect version of yourself splits off and can act independently for a very short time.
      • Supernova: 8/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
        • At 15, unlock 'Supernova': You temporarily force the world's natural energy fields to layer over and intersect themselves, this causes an area around this epicenter to become supercharged, opening your natural connection to this allows your speed, strength, and defense to all skyrocket while in the supercharged area.
    • Psionic: Governs things like telepathy, mind reading, and resistance to mind-altering effects. It also governs your level of cognition, specifically relating to your 'self'.
      • Self: 11/100
        • At 20, unlock 'Personality': Your mind now lets you think of yourself and others in deeper detail. Letting you develop a 'higher' personality.
          • Self-consciousness: Your inner world has gained complexity, you may choose a name each time you progress on the 'Self' line.
      • Communication: 10/100
        • At 20, unlock 'Plundered Lexicon': When spending time around creatures, you automatically gather parts of their inner monologue, allowing you to learn words and meanings outside of Pattern Recognition's scope.
          • Pattern Recognition: When you see objects repeatedly associated with sounds, you can start to associate them with each other.
      • Psionic Resistance: 0/100
        • At 20, unlock 'Xenostructure': Your mind's abnormal nature is emphasized, which may affect how certain powers interface with it.
      • Isolation: 8/100 (+8 Every other metamorphosis.)
        • At 15, unlock 'Isolation': Your greater mind Psionic potential resonates throughout the area you reside, weakening targets pain thresholds, making your next attack do 25% more damage.
    • Abnormal Ability: Governs things that might not be innately part of your evolution, but still reside within your HNA. Mainly used to gain expressions of creatures you've eaten.
      • LOCKED!: 0/20
        • At 20, Unlock the 'Abnormal Ability' tree.
    You are currently about the size of a 10-year-old child. (This is a rough comparison for size and weight, not strictly one or the other.)

    Natural Selection: Phantom, Warp Blast, Sneak Attack, Noisiness increased this by 8 time; Smell increased by 5.
     
    Last edited:
  • Informational
    • [X][Evolve] Plan: Sniff and Scratch
    -[X][Evolve] Smell: 5/100 +5 pt
    -[X][Evolve] Technique: 0/100 +10 pt


    [X][Evolve] Plan: Sniff and Sneak
    -[X][Evolve] Smell: 5/100 +5 pt
    -[X][Evolve] Climb Speed: 7/100 +3 pt
    -[X][Evolve] Noisiness: 18/100 +2 pt
    -[X][Evolve] Sneak Attack: 18/100 +2 pt
    -[X][Evolve] Base Speed: 0/100 pt

    [X][Action] Yes.
     
    [X][Evolve] Write-In:
    - [X][Evolve] Communication: 10 pt
    - [X][Evolve] Noisiness: 2 pt
    - [X][Evolve] Sneak Attack: 2 pt
    - [X][Evolve] Self: 1 pt

    Let's pass a couple thresholds we can reach real quick.

    [X][Action] Yes.
     
    [X][Evolve] Write-In:
    - [X][Evolve] Communication: 10 pt
    - [X][Evolve] Noisiness: 2 pt
    - [X][Evolve] Sneak Attack: 2 pt
    - [X][Evolve] Self: 1 pt

    [X][Action] Yes.
     
    Vote closed
  • Voting
    • Scheduled vote count started by ecoolasice on Oct 22, 2024 at 11:10 AM, finished with 4 posts and 3 votes.
    • [X][Action] Yes.
      [X][Evolve] Write-In:
      - [X][Evolve] Communication: 10 pt
      - [X][Evolve] Noisiness: 2 pt
      - [X][Evolve] Sneak Attack: 2 pt
      - [X][Evolve] Self: 1 pt
      [X][Evolve] Plan: Sniff and Scratch
      -[X][Evolve] Smell: 5/100 +5 pt
      -[X][Evolve] Technique: 0/100 +10 pt
      [X][Evolve] Plan: Sniff and Sneak
      -[X][Evolve] Smell: 5/100 +5 pt
      -[X][Evolve] Climb Speed: 7/100 +3 pt
      -[X][Evolve] Noisiness: 18/100 +2 pt
      -[X][Evolve] Sneak Attack: 18/100 +2 pt
      -[X][Evolve] Base Speed: 0/100 pt
    Click to expand...
     
  • Voting
    • Chapter 25
  • Threadmarks
    • What do you upgrade?
    [X][Evolve] Write-In: (7 Votes)
    - [X][Evolve] Communication: 10 pt
    - [X][Evolve] Noisiness: 2 pt
    - [X][Evolve] Sneak Attack: 2 pt
    - [X][Evolve] Self: 1 pt

    After you hatch, do you still want to go into the ocean?
    [X][Action] Yes. (9 Votes)
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    I awaken curled up, walls pressing against me on all sides, barely past the level of being cozy and into the realm of becoming uncomfortable. My legs and tail are all spun around each other, my spines pressed down against my back and all four of my arms bunched up to my chest. It is a familiar position, and I immediately start to push against the shell of my egg. A few small cracks form and I can start to get my claws between the separating sections and help them along. A final heave gets the panel in front of me to fall away, letting me slither out into the ruined gray and red stone building around me.

    I almost instantly notice another new pattern etched into the energy flowing through me. Feeling through it, I sort of know what this one does, unlike the crown for my Phantom, or the web spreading out from me that lets me Abduct, this one is entirely internal and following new channels through my body. I could conduct the world's power through those channels in a manner similar to my floating, though a lot faster, then the excess from the Warp would probably forcefully expel itself though, because I don't actually have a way to hand onto it. Not yet anyway. I can also tell that something has changed with my greater mind, though I can't pinpoint what exactly.

    Stitching out and shifting myself around, I am pleased to feel that all of my aches are gone and even the small twinge of pain from my left blade is gone. I can also tell that I am larger again, my spines are able to feel the air moving further away, letting me feel the air moving across the water onto land and using that I can tell the water itself is just out of range where before I could only see about halfway there. Taking a deep breath I can smell more too, most things are still drowned out by the saltwater scent, but there is definitely more odor reaching me.

    Of course, my new size does pose the issue of leaving my hiding spot. I squeezed my way in here and didn't really check before molting, and looking now lets me see that there isn't a way out. This whole area is covered in rubble and loose stone, forming the small pocket I am stuck in now. Approaching the crack in the wall that I slipped in through in the first place, a bit of testing tells me it is much too small for me to fit through anymore. Testing the wall, I find it is too sturdy to move, and it is the same story for the bits of rubble.

    An idea comes to me after a few minutes of thinking. Forcefully expelling the energy out of myself? That might be enough to widen the crack, which would let me get out! I look at the pile of gray rocks around me though, doing so might knock something loose and crush me. But, my Phantom is unhelpful, and I don't have any other ideas, so I am going to have to risk it.

    Swimming back a bit, I channel energy through me. I feel my body immediately start buzzing, and it only takes a few seconds before I feel it hit a critical point. I disappear before reappearing right next to the crack, the energy stored in me suddenly burning hot and painfully, making me curl up tight on instinct. The energy has nowhere to go though, and I feel parts of my skin bubbling up, making visceral unpleasant sensations to flood my brain.

    And then a second later the pain vanishes like it was never there and the energy explodes out of me with a warbling Boom.

    I can feel the new paths through my body realigning themselves, slightly shifter around from the energy, so I can't channel it in such a way for a few seconds. The rocks above me shift and dust flood the space, which makes me start coughing hard. The crack was widened, though, and I quickly slip out into the fresh air and start to catch me breath. It takes more than a few seconds, but once I do, I decide I dislike coughing. My lungs pressing against my rib cage and forcing my whole chest to expand before snapping shut as all the air is forced out, only to repeat itself? I dislike it a lot.

    I look at the building I just exited, as a strange groaning noise coming from it reaches me, sort of sounding like a tree before it falls over. Falls over? I quickly start moving away, down the beach towards the water, while keeping my crest locked on the building. It doesn't take long before I can tell one of the three remaining walls is tilting. And then it falls, taking the other two with it, the whole structure turning into a pile of rocks as dust fills the air. I know that the blast wasn't that strong, so it must have been close to falling over already. Seeing the dust makes me cough once more, to my annoyance.

    Turning around, I finish the journey to the water's edge and look out across the water. Nothing. I didn't really expect to see anything even with my increased vision, but the sheer amount of water still makes me feel small. That isn't even factoring in the feeling of being observed by something old, something just out of sight. Slightly choppy waters don't say anything, even though I think they are trying to show me a feeling. Pushing the matter out of my head, I stoop down and take a few drinks, the cool water chasing away the slight itching in my throat that was making me want to cough.

    I had planned on doing some hunting before I came across the carcass, and I see no reason to change my plan now that my molting has robbed me of the meal I had in my stomach. Glancing up, I note the sun is basically right above before pulling my jaws closed and slipping beneath the waves.

    I am greeted to a flurry of activity. Fish darting around, small things moving across the sand, ill looking plants all moving and dancing and making their own currents and tides alongside the water's overall motion. Where was all this before? I guess this is a different part of the water, away from my nest because of the Uprights last night, but why is this part more alive? Or, since it supports my idea that the Uprights eat from all the water, why was the other part so dead?

    Looking around, I find myself being pulled deeper, and I let it. I am bigger, meaning my lungs are bigger, so I should be able to stay under for longer. I avoid the small shelled things, and a lot of the fish are too small to be worthwhile, though I do see some deeper that might be good. Most things are avoiding me, though, so I start examining the environment to see if there is a way to sneak up on them so they don't flee even deeper into the water where I can't chase. Well I probably could, but the idea of going much deeper than the fish in question currently are unsettles me, so I won't.

    My scan of the seafloor comes up with two notable things. For one, there are definitely some Upright skeletons tied to various stones, long dead and eaten by the surrounding animals. The other thing I notice is that there are a lot of rotting metal thrown about in weird shapes and even making small buildings in places. I don't know why there is metal down here, but it is certainly useful because just looking now I see a path that I can sneak down to get close enough to the fish to grab.

    Swimming backwards a bit, I jump up and take a fresh breath of air before curling up by the sand and slithering to the closest bit of metal big enough to cover me. Moving from it to the next, to the next, I keep my spines flared up, watching all the small movements around me but really focused on my target school of fish. I can't smell down here, and my hearing is all kinds of muffled, so my spines are my best option because peaking my crest out constantly is liable to get me caught. It isn't as accurate a sense without being combined with a thing's scent, but I can use the motions of the water to compensate, even if the solution is a lot worse.

    Tragically, the metal stops far enough away that if I leave cover, the fish will swim away before I can grab any of them. On the bright side, I can curl the energy web around one of them and use that to snatch one. I try to do just that, but I can't move the energy at all. Looking to another fish, one with dull scales and too small to bother with, and suddenly the mesh starts responding to my wishes again. So I need to anchor it to something then, and seeing it with my spikes isn't enough.

    Slowly tilting around the side of the metal, I lock onto one of the fish in the middle of the school. I almost take a breath to ready myself but remember that I am underwater when my jaws don't move. Bursting down the tunnel of energy, the fish immediately react, turning to dart deeper into the water, but not fast enough. I arrive in their midst, my claws snapping out and around one of the brown fish, while one of my blades manages to pierce another. I have just enough time to tuck my limbs in close before I am yanked back down the sand.

    The red blood of the stabbed one starts leaking into the water around me, so I begin quickly heading back to shore. I can't eat underwater anyway. The fish that I got aren't very big, only a little larger than my claws, but they are big enough to keep me from going hungry for a few days, more thanks to the unexpected second fish. I want to let out a please trill, but again my jaws don't move because I am underwater.

    Thankfully, I make it to shore without attracting any challengers for my prizes, and I toss them a bit inland before shaking off the excess water. That solved, I float forward and put the still living one out of its misery by way of a swift stab. Directing the energy up into my mouth, I fill up a bit less than a quarter of my stomach, a lot less than I had thought I would get out of the kills but still enough to not get hungry for a few days.

    Meal eaten, I decide to make my way back to my nest to see if those Uprights are still there. I stick to the shadows as much as I can as usual, but my new size make sneaking a lot harder on these big stone paths on account that they are almost totally empty for the most part. Eventually I manage to get back to the same spot that let me see the sleeping forms last night and I observe my nest.

    Looking at it makes my head hurt a little bit, but it is easily ignorable, my spines are seeing no movement and a sniff tells me what I already know, that there were Uprights here recently. I also smell a bit of death in the spot that they were laying last night, but without any movement and their stench emanating in a wide area around that spot, I can't tell if there is a corpse there or if it has been moved. My nose does pick up on the smell of some food though, or edible at least, so maybe? The whole nest is still ventilating the Uprights' smell with fresh air, making details hard to nail down.

    /|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
    Fair warning, you are quickly approaching the spot that I would say Metamorphosis takes dedicated effort, not something that can just happen. You're not there yet, but it's coming, so I encourage you to look at other animals and how much they need to eat and how you might get that as a predator... Also, surprise longest chapter of the Quest yet.

    What do you do?
    [X] Investigate, you can't tell anything is amiss and want to look around.
    [X] Leave and come back later.
    -[X] Write-In: (What do you do in the meantime?)
    [X] Write-In:
    (Note: Write-In's must be simple in direction or concept. Your votes are instincts, not complex thoughts.)
    (Votes are done in the approval style, where you can vote for more than one option that you like.)
     
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    • [X] Investigate, you can't tell anything is amiss and want to look around.

    We probably need to go all in on sneak next Metamorphosis if we still plan on living in the city.
     
    Chapter 26
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    • What do you do?
    [X] Investigate, you can't tell anything is amiss and want to look around. (8 Votes)
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    Once it is clear nothing is in the building, I do one last scan of the area before swimming towards one of the empty doorways.

    As I get closer, that headache starts to get louder, but it isn't nearly as bad as whatever happened last night. Maybe one of the Uprights left a piece of the bad technology behind? Thinking of Uprights, I glide my way over to the smell of death that I detected outside. Doing so makes the pain lessen, so whatever it is probably on the other side of my nest. I'll check it out next.

    Moving between the old machines, I become aware of another downside to my bigger size. Just like the shadows being harder to stick to, I can't as easily move under and between the lines of metal anymore. Instead, I have to stick to the dedicated paths and only float through the bigger gaps and spaces. I feel a bit of worry that I might be too big for my bedding now, but looking up at some of the other buckets still hanging about and the worry fades, they are still a lot bigger than me.

    Oh! I can see almost the whole building at once now! I like that a lot. Any disappointment about my size making it harder to squeeze into places is replaced by the joy of being able to see more.

    Reaching the spot that the Uprights slept last night, I see there is just one body with a small see-through tube with a stinger on the end laying on the ground next to. Examining it, I can't figure anything out about it, so I turn my attention to the corpse. I don't really have to know anything about Uprights to know that the body was unhealthy before it died. It looks thin, and sick, the fur is patchy, and its hands are stained red around their tips. Getting close and sniffing them, I decide that it is probably blood, the omnipresent smell of sickly decay and death makes it hard to tell though.

    Despite the carcass's state, I am not going to overlook a free meal. Directing energy through it, I can already tell I am not going to get much, it's poor state and how long it's been dead leaving few nutrients for the energy to latch onto and siphon up to me. Regardless, I manage to fill my stomach up to about a third full, so I am set on food for now.

    Now to deal with the light, but still painful, pressure on the back of my greater mind. Gliding around, it is fairly easy to narrow down whatever it is by using the steady increase in pain, like I would use smell. I find a short pole with yellow and blue blinking lights on the end mounted to the bottom of one of the machines. Seeing it directly on top of being so close is a bit too much for me and part of me wants to pull back and get away, but a larger, more instinctual part of me lashes out.

    Grabbing the rod, which hurts, I rip it from its spot and start to slash and smash it. As I do, the pain starts to lessen and instead of just disappearing, a sense of relief starts to trickle in, so I break and claw and scratch at it more. It doesn't take long before the pain is gone, and the relief slowly fades away, leaving me holding a destroyed bit of technology and out of breath. Dropping it, I catch me breath before moving on to my bed.

    Climbing the inside building is a lot easier with my uninjured blade arm, which makes sense. Floating up the unstable ramp, I feel the energy keeping me a lot grow a bit unsteady. It seems that I will need to reinforce it soon, my new weight might be a bit much to disperse across it for very long. Thankfully, my earlier conclusion was right, the metal bucket is still easily big enough for me to curl up in.

    My good mood doesn't last very long as my spines pick up on the shape of two Uprights making their way straight towards the nest. Focusing on them starts to make my head hurt all over again, meaning they have some more of the technology. The pain is increasing as they get closer brings like normal, but it is also briefly raising and lowering like a wave. Taking a deep breath, the wind isn't on my side this time, so I can't really smell them, but their proximity lets me pick up on a few hints and using those I come to a conclusion. It is the pair that had me trapped in that see-through cage when I first hatched.

    /|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\/|\
    This chapter was a bit hard to balance for what I wanted to happen. Also, I am thinking about giving you all a bit of a bump in the upgrade points gained during Metamorphosis', how do you guys think?

    What should you do?
    [X] Ambush them and…
    -[X] try to break the technology to give you some relief.
    -[X] try to kill them.
    [X] Flee, you can probably get away, though they are close enough that they will probably spot you.
    [X] Hide in your bucket.
    [X] Write-In:
    (Note: Write-In's must be simple in direction or concept. Your votes are instincts, not complex thoughts.)
    (Votes are done in the approval style, where you can vote for more than one option that you like.)
     
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