Day 4 - Shipwrecked?: 7/7
Strategically but inconspicuously combing through the beach brimming with creatures takes some time, but eventually 387 has to come to a conclusion which doesn’t shed good light on the situation at all.
She’s not here.
The second discovery which he’d found earlier was that while the Quest Security ponies have been using one partially cleared out entrance to the jungle in order to bring materials and food. Discounting his own and 93’s points of entry, there was one more place further on the beach where someone had entered the jungle as well. Unlike Quest’s guys, they were trying to be sneaky.
He has a good amount of recent experience at sneaking through forests which should be possible to translate into a jungle, but he’s fully aware that there’s a high chance that him straight up following the faint trail could end the same way as it did on the cruise ship. There’s only one way to avoid it or at least lessen the impact.
387 lets out an annoyed sigh and heads off to Chrysalis’s umbrella stuck in the sand.
“Your Majesty,” he sits down next to her.
“And here I was actually starting to enjoy myself. Do you know that the drones managed to freak out a pair of crystal pony guards? Pretty funny, no?” she replies without even opening her eyes.
“Your Majesty, this is serious.”
“It always is with you and that’s your biggest flaw,” she sits up, rolls her eyes, and pats 387’s head as patronizingly as she can, “Alright, tell mommy what’s bothering you.”
387 tames his desire to hurl when hearing Chrysalis say ‘mommy’ in that half-sultry tone, and goes straight to the point:
“Gem isn’t on the beach and someone carefully entered the jungle away from the mob of creatures to avoid being seen. I can’t help thinking that it was her, and the more I turn what happened to me inside my head the more I think she’s somehow involved both in the ship sinking and…”
“Aaaand?”
“Look, I don’t know, and I’m going to follow the tracks. I just wanted to tell you what I suspected in case I woke up later stuffed inside a python with zero idea how I got there.”
“Take 99380 with you,” is all Chrysalis says before lying down again.
“What? Why?” 387 blinks in surprise.
“Tell the drone to shut up and sit on your back or something but take it with you.”
“I don’t understand.”
“That’s an order, 387.”
“Fiiine,” he breathes out through gritted teeth, “You know you could just tell me-”
“Meh, why waste time telling you my magnificent plans if you end up mind-wiped again anyway,” she snickers.
387’s eye twitches, but as much as he hates to admit it…
…she’s right.
A plan based on his information formed inside her head is much safer than in his own.
“99380, get over here! You’re getting a point ahead of time just in case.”
“YAAAAAA -COMING- AAAAAAYYYY!”
[10013:1, 20100:4, 36658:3, 99111:2, 99380:4, 99526:2, Smiley: :-) :-) :-) :-) :-),
65536:1]
***
With 99380 on his back, 387 carefully scans his surroundings. A broken branch here, a leaf stomped into the ground there. The signs of someone heading deeper into the jungle are there for someone with 387’s experience to notice.
No hoofprints. Someone was careful but inexperienced at moving through wilderness. The ground is only one of our witnesses here.
99380 wants to ask about everything around them, but keeps its mouth shut according to 387’s instructions, and it only repeatedly turns its head from side to side so as not to miss anything.
“Blotty strangler!” a mental call rings through their link.
387’s warrior reflexes make him freeze in place as he briefly glances through 99380’s eyes who is looking down at the ground and spots the tip of the tail of a python to the right of his lowering hoof. He probably wouldn’t have stepped on it and, even if he did, he would be able to deal with the python, but he carefully steps to the left instead while noting how astonishingly well the borderline paranoia which keeps the drones alive in the tunnels translates to the surface.
“Well spotted,” he replies mentally.
99380 smiles to itself but doesn’t say anything verbally or mentally. The rules are - unless it’s a warning, don’t disturb 387.
The warrior himself is focused on finding any signs that might hint at something unusual, because whoever he and 99380 are tracking has been learning with every step through the wet jungle soil and improving their stealth at a rapid pace. What’s worse is that, unless 387 is missing something critical, there must have been more than one pony moving around and leaving behind visible marks. Thankfully, now it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone still around, so 387 can at least take his time looking around.
The search ends when, past a certain indistinguishable area of the jungle, 387 can’t find anything.
Hmmm, we have a clear distinction between areas where something is and where something is not, but I can’t find anything. Not around and not up, so… down?
“99380, would you be able to figure out if there was anything strange about the ground?”
“I dunno, I can try,” shrugs the drone.
“Go for it.”
99380 floats down from 387’s back and begins wandering around while the warrior keeps following it and covering the drone’s own small hoofprints which it keeps leaving everywhere.
It takes less than ten minutes to cover a quite large area when 99380 suddenly stops, tilts its head, and trots off in one direction before stopping dead in its tracks.
“There’s a hollow area that way,” 99380 points ahead, “It doesn’t feel like just a random hole. The walls are much more solid than any burrow I can sense and it’s not under a tree.”
“Really?” 387 hums to himself.
Several minutes later, 387 carefully moves a bush, then a small boulder, and finds a trapdoor hidden under a layer of dirt.
Well well well…
“Hide under that tree, I’m going down,” he points at an unidentified tree nearby, “Don’t move unless you’re found, and stay in contact.”
99380 nods and shuffles away.
Readying himself for anything, 387 descends into darkness and closes the trap door over himself.
This ends extremely anticlimactically when, after only several steps down, the narrow tunnel opens into a simple square room with a flimsy wooden bench containing some basic tools and pieces of paper smelling of… food and chemistry. Unfortunately, with his lack of recent exposure to the pony world, 387 can’t identify what these clues could mean on his own.
So, two mouth-held saws, a hatchet, two shovels, and… whatever this is. Hive mind?
> [Biodegradable food packaging.]
387 checks his hive mind links. He shouldn’t have been able to connect to any nodes from this far away without expending a significant amount of love, yet that didn’t happen. Examining the signal, his mental poke first reaches 99380 and then, after a noticeable delay, the changelings on the beach as well.
Ohhhhh, so that’s why she wanted me to take 99380. The little radio drone can do this much? I bet she’s been periodically checking on us too. With this weak of a connection she can’t be watching directly but at least she knows we’re still alive.
Anyway, hoofprints, basic tools, and the remains of food. Nothing that could be hiding any entrance to elsewhere.
“Hmph…” 387 takes one final long breath just in case his unconscious mind can think of something he consciously can’t, but in the end he has to admit that his imagination has run dry.
“Everything okay up there, 99380?”
“Yup! There are some spotty flappers up in the trees, but that’s about it.”
“Okay, I’m coming up.”
387 climbs up the stairs, does his best to hide any clues to him and the drone being here, and the two head back to the beach.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” asks 99380, once again on his back.
“I found ‘something’, I just have no clue what it means.”
***
“So?” is all Chrysalis asks when she returns from taking a swim in the ocean among some other more courageous cruise guests and sees 387 and 99380 sitting outside the shade cast by her umbrella not to ruin her resting spot.
“I saw noodly hissers! And they were completely different from back home. Then there were spotty flappers and -oh right!- some skittering swarmers ran over me, but they were tiny and I remembered that 10013 said that if I didn’t disturb them they wouldn’t bite,” reports 99380 with excitement.
“I guess you’re free to go, 99380,” with a sigh and an involuntary smile, 387 taps at the drone’s shoulder, “Tell others about the parrots you saw or have a swim or something.”
“And don’t go too far from the beach,” adds Chrysalis, “The security ponies said the ship will be here soon. Oh, and find Smiley. I haven’t seen it the whole day.”
Once 99380 trots off, 387 recounts his findings to Chrysalis.
***
A little bit of searching later, 99380 finds 10013 on a more secluded part of the beach in the corner of a large square drawn in the sand, sitting on its haunches while holding a long, goop-reinforced stick. A short distance in front of it, 99111 is holding a hardened ball of goop. Behind 10013, 20100 is sitting and watching 99111. The two remaining drones are standing around the square.
99111 throws the ball at no particular speed towards 10013 who bats it away, drops the bat, and starts running as quickly as it can along the edges of the square while 99526 and 36658 rush quickly towards the arcing ball, collide in mid-air, and bounce off into the sand, both missing the ball entirely. Eventually, 99526 manages to get to the ball first, grabs it, and raises it with a happy:
“GOT IT!”
10013 has, in the meantime, managed to run three fourths around the square and stopped in the corner just before 99526 raised its hoof.
“Three quarters of a point,” 20100 beams, “You’re good at running!”
“Yaaay!” 10013 jumps up and down.
99380 walks over to 20100.
“Whatcha doing?”
“With curling out of the question, we made up a new game. We’re calling it batball. 99111 has the ball and throws it at you. You pretend it’s a gribbler and you hit it with a sturdy bat and run away. To simulate a bendy tunnel, you gotta run along the edges of the square, and you get points for the distance you manage to run before anyone else catches the ball you hit. It trains you to hit gribblers really hard and quickly run away. It’s good practice, actually,” 20100 points at a series of lines in the sand drawn with a stick, “I’m keeping score here this round, so that we don’t fill up hive memory space with pointless stuff.”
“Neat, who’s winning?”
“10013 has the most run-arounds. It’s very quick. 65536 was the fastest when it played with us for a while but then said it had to check up on something. You wanna play too? It’s exhausting, but the food princess filled us up when she watched us for a while.”
“Sure,” 99380 nods, “But first, the Queen told me we should find Smiley. Has anyone seen it?”
“Oh, a mission from the Queen?” asks 10013, approaching along with the others.
“Yup. She said Smiley has been gone all day and she’s probably worried.”
The drones look at each other, pondering it.
“Hmm, last time I saw Smiley was in the morning. It dug a hole at the edge of the greenery and hid inside it because it was too hot. We can check it out,” 10013 puts a marker on the hive mind map of the beach, “Try calling out via our links on the way.”
“Smiley, where are you?”
“Calling agent Happy Face. I repeat - calling agent Happy face!”
“Smileeeeyyyy!”
Soon afterwards, the missing hive link lights up, followed by annoyed groans and yells of cruise guests as Smiley rushes between the various groups, spraying them with sand, an inflated condom carefully held in its mouth.
*Happy face!* *Happy face!*
“Where were you, buddy?” 36658 smiles at the Silent, “The Queen was worried- well, she wanted to know where you were.”
*Stripey face!*
“With 1313 and Miss Zamira?” asks 10013.
*Stripey face with protective goggles!*
“Is that a little more expressive than usual for Smiley?” 99111 scratches its head and remains ignored.
“Zebra zebra zebra… Miss Gem?” 36658 tilts its head.
Smiley nods, spits out the condom ball, and bounces it up with its hoof towards 10013. Reflexively, 10013 bounces it away from its face. Smiley bounces it up towards 20100 this time.
“Hey, a bouncy ball game!” 20100 giggles, bouncing the ball towards 36658.
“Alright, make a circle and don’t let the floaty touch the ground!” calls out 10013, and the drones fluidly switch into playing a different game, no questions asked and all worries forgotten.
***
The lights of a small yacht become visible through the late evening gloom, and a flare of light shot out of Glorious Quest’s horn alerts the various parties on the beach, followed by his magically amplified voice.
“CONGRATULATIONS, DEAR GUESTS! The Ataraki resort yacht is almost here. It, however, is too small to fit everypony in one trip, so the passengers will go first, and the staff will embark during the second round early in the morning. Don’t worry, they’re carrying supplies for tonight for griffons and ponies alike. My security staff will stay as well, so please enjoy your dinner and have a good night’s sleep.”
In less than an hour, the changelings board the yacht along with everyone else. Considering the much more limited space, Chrysalis boots the drones and 387 out of their cabin, remaining alone with 93. Not that they mind and, shortly after, the drones are sleeping under a table on the yacht’s deck while 387 stretches himself on the bench.
With the changelings safely on the final leg of their journey to the resort, day four ends.
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Potato?
Eyes everywhere and when immature, full of toxicity?
Thats a Lot of prep for a hideaway, and even more for how to get there?
Intresting way of splitting the party. The whole cruise ship is smuggling staff and using the passengers for cover?
Now I'm imaging the drones ending up at a real baseball game somehow, and all marveling at how apparently their batball game was so good, the ponies have adopted it to play themselves, before going on to critique all the little things about how the ponies are playing it wrong.
Take what time you need!
Corporate is no potato, it is minced liver. Nobodies favorite and it only gets worse. But regarding your cat... hugs. Just hugs.
My condolences.
I remember when i was younger, my dog ate something in the backyard and died from a seizure.
Couple of years ago I found out I developed a pet allergy and I can't even have the dogs I want now...
Take your time friend. And thank you for all the Drone splendor so far. It has been a lot of fun and has helped with my own inspiration... and sanity.
11293428
Sinking a cruise ship is small price to pay to smuggle some primo potatoes.
11293661
- Homerun - "THAT GRIBBLER FLEW REALLY HIGH!" (O_O)
- the transition is taking this entire month and from the first I'm starting in my new place, so that'll be busy too. Bleh. I don't want to be making money only so that I can live another day to keep on making money.
11293735
It pays the bills. The potato, not the cat.
11295324
- Pets are a blessing in a world where other people are mostly only a curse. But it happened many times before and it'll happen again. The good old quote sums it best - "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened".
- Everyone needs an outlet that keeps them human, not just a cog in the soul-grinding machine of global economy.
11295666
About the quote, I agree.
Economy wasn't supposed to be "soul grinding." Perhaps I'm wrong, but I feel it was once a prideful and respectful endeavor.
That I believe was a product of poor choices.
Both on the people running it and the people being a part of it.
Well... maybe with the exception of cubical... Indeed not many really care much for that... hmmm...
For instance... where i work at Wendy's:
It was challenging, but satisfying and I enjoyed the people I worked with. It was good...
Then my cowerker cheated on his wife who was also working here with ANOTHER coworker... and they all 3 quit...
Then... covid hit...the job market got rilled up.
Now we can't keep anyone. People keep quitting or not working out and doing something dumb. Like that guy on probation who threatened a customer...
I was training him to help me...
Sigh... I get paid more now... but...
I went from being actually excited to come into work and being ok with what I had... to hating it all and wishing we could just keep someone... I'm losing my mind. We are so bad off we have even had to start closing the store sometimes just because it would just be me and the manager running and closing the store extra early.
That has cost me money and I'm losing my savings despite being paid more. How the hell...
11295666
11296061
Sorry, i guess I took that too literal and spiraled off into a rant. I apologize.
11296195
It's fine. Venting is sometimes necessary, and coherently putting things that are responsible for the feelings down on paper can help with getting to the core of the problem.