trans_9 | (no subject)

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Pat had found himself exploring the city, and discovered two things thus far: one, that seeing an entire city looking so empty unnerved him in a vague sort of way, and two, the sight of all those buildings made Toxin restless.

C'mon, pops. I've been good. No biting, no mauling, no even threatening to when people're acting stupid. And I was behaving myself even before we got here, remember?

Pat frowned and didn't answer, deciding to peer up at something that he supposed was the equivalent of a skyscraper. A few tendrils snuck out of his shirt collar and poked at him. Please? Anybody gets the wrong idea and I'll let you take care of it. No fights. Come on, I'm bored in here.

Pat sighed, glancing down at one of the tendrils and raising an eyebrow. "No deciding to change your mind about fighting at the last minute."

Would I do that? The tendrils just got a look in return. Trust me, I won't. So can I come out now?

"Only for a few hours," Pat warned as he nodded and more tendrils burst out and the rest of his clothing went decidedly goopier. Toxin grinned toothily as he was given control, and stretched for a moment before scrambling up the side of a building. He glanced around for a moment before web-slinging off, setting out in hopes of finding something more interesting than abandoned buildings.

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That was all Red needed to hear. Turning tail, he bounded through the peculiar rooms of the building and down the steps, landing hard with his full weight at the bottom and darting into the street.

Tail up, head down, hands tucked to his underside, Red resembled a very agile and very large bird of prey. He jerked his head around on the ground, sniffing, tail lashing.

"Stronger here," he growled. "Decay doesn't spontaniously occur under normal conditions. Something strange is going on."

Toxin scrambled a bit farther, then sprang off the building's side, landing in a crouch before getting up to follow after Red. He joined in the sniffing again, beginning to move forward.

he grumbled.

"Other than that," Red mumbled to himself. He was distracted now, sniffing and moving forward slowly, keeping Toxin slightly to his side. With any luck, though, he was just being paranoid.

"It could be one of us. Maybe injured. Maybe dumped here." Test the air again...Stronger, thicker, like an slab of dewback ribs left in the sun. He revised his thoughts. "...Maybe killed a while ago and dumped here."

It moved. Darting across the road impossibly quickly, hiding in the shadows of a building, still standing and watching them.

They likely saw it this time now.

Maybe the smell was from some sort of festering wound? Different creatures smelled differently, so an injured one would smell differently, too.

But if it was injured, it sure moved fast for something that was.

Toxin said, then froze as he saw the figure dart across the road. He snarled at it automatically in surprise before pausing and looking to Red.

Red didn't hesitate. If it was the smell of the injury driving some primative predatorial instinct in his blood or a concern for a potentially injured crewmate or something else, he didn't know. But he wasn't going to let it get away. Something was wrong with this scenario.

Bounding forward after the shadow, the Tiss'shar let out a sharp bark. "You, stop!"

It hesitated, just for a moment, watching them, then the figure disappeared into the nearby alley between buildings.

There was no sound of footsteps.

Toxin darted after the shadow and Red, more interested in the scent than in the lack of sound. he yelled as he turned, heading into the alley after the figure.

Red leapt, his feet connecting hard with the wall of the alley as he sprang off sideways. The more he lunged, the more space he could close between it and himself. And that mattered, especially since it wasn't making any response to them. Was it crew? Or something else?

"I don't think it's human!" He shouted back at Toxin, racing down the alley. If he could get around in front of it, he could stop it...

They had it cornered.

Cornered and hiding there in the shadows. And then...

It jumped up onto the rood of the building they were next to and ran off into the night.

Toxin growled, and leapt onto the building's side, casting for the scent again. He paused for a moment, glancing down at Red.

Red stood at the end of the alley, his tail lashing back and forth impatiently as he looked up. "I can try. Hopefully it hasn't got teeth larger than yours..."

He turned and began quickly searching for the entrance, in the back of his mind wishing repeatedly that they had comlinks...Just in case.

Toxin said, sounding a little proud for a moment as he climbed to the building's roof. He sniffed around, growling to himself-so much for a scent trail. Or any kind of sight-based sign, for that matter.

he called back down.

Red was already half inside the doorway when he heard Toxin. He couldn't help but feel irritated...wouldn't you if a shadowy figure had all but teased you?

He gave the building a few experimental sniffs before heading back to the alleyway. "Not inside either. If it went into one of the buildings, I don't think it was this one." A frustrated snort escaped him as Red blew the last of the rotting scent out of his nostrils. "It could well have been one of the other crew. It wouldn't have been the first one to keep its distance."

Toxin moved off the roof and back down into the alleyway, landing with a thud.

Red clicked his tongue against his teeth, looking back out towards the city. "True. But I have a hard time believing that was everyone. This ship houses a whole city, entirely unused and primarily untouched, by the smell. It is obviously prepared to house more than just a handful of sentients. Do we have any way of knowing that everyone actually bothered to attend that meeting?"

After a moment's thought, he added, "Or that they would be in the same form from place to place? But I think you're right. Asking the others might be best, for now."

Toxin looked up, sniffing again to be sure. he grumbled, shaking his head.

That peculiar rattling alien equivolent of laughter came from Red's throat again as he began to walk towards the main street. "We're the strangers here. As far as Stacy is concerned, I am sure, we're the ones acting weirdly." He turned his long neck, looking over his shoulder. "Even if someone did make a list, though, how can we be sure people aren't lying?"

he snorted as he followed after.

He suddenly grinned toothily.

"For being a non-human, you have a surprisingly Human view at times." Red nipped at his claws as they walked, his eyes still flickering from building to building in case that thing reappeared. "She may not know we're being weird, or she may not think we are being weird. She isn't like us, we can't expect her to think like us."

He looked at Toxin. With the teeth and the eye-slits and the wall-climbing... "If any interrogation needs to be done, you'd be my first choice at it, for sure."

He snorted at the comment on Stacy. he muttered.

He snorted again at the comment.

As they walked, Red now seemed to almost compulsively sniff the air. He was looking for any signs of life that didn't belong to the buildings themselves. But the whole thing felt like a model home. It may have been furnished, it may have looked livable...but it lacked the grit of actual living.

"I would have thought a symbiotic species would pick a host with ideals similar to its own. So his MO is slightly less ...impulsive than yours?"

And newborn symbiotes weren't picky. Toxin snorted-if he was capable of rolling his eyes, he would've done so.

Red bobbed his head. Awkward, but a fair mimicry of nodding. "In a normal every day setting, he'd have a point. But I'm not sure what applies as 'acting right' in this place." Obviously he was having second thoughts about chasing down that cloaked figure. Stacy hadn't told them to stop, but who knew...

Toxin shrugged.

Apparently Red wasn't alone in his initial reaction.

He peered at Red curiously for a moment.