Status Update: 9
There’s some contraption or another built on the roof of this temple, because as the rain pounds down on it, it makes a strange whistling noise, not unlike wind howling through a room, but louder and more discordant. It’s… unpleasant. It likely sounded more soothing in this temple’s heyday.
The pink lizard has not stopped glaring at you, watching you as you hold up some of the worm grass tendrils to your neurons. (-2 worm grass) You glare back, but this only seems to infuriate it more. You wave your lance at it as a warning to keep it away.
You had to clear out the dust from the portion of the room you’re currently in, just so you’re not coughing while you’re trying to rest. It’s not the best place to rest, but you’ll deal with it. It’s just for one rain cycle.
[3 actions left.]
Hey, should we do something about that lizard?
You look over at the lizard again. It's still glaring at you, but it hasn't moved. You pull your lance a little closer just in case.
Truth be told, you're not that worried about most lizards. Your puppet is large enough that the majority of lizards shouldn't regard you as a meal, considering the fact that you're very clearly made of metal and are currently wielding a weapon. You would be more worried about your neurons, but silver lizards aside, none of the lizards you could encounter would be interested in those.
The lizards you are worried about would be the ones larger than your puppet. Green lizards would be the biggest concern, particularly the variant that has adapted to the peat in your facility grounds; you've taken to calling them mud lizards. From what you know of their behavior, they could attack due to territoriality rather than just out of hunting instinct. You fortunately have not encountered any yet, but that could easily change as you move closer to Five Pebbles' facility grounds.
As for the pink lizard currently sharing the temple with you, you're not bothered. You halfheartedly shake your lance at it. It growls at you, then turns so its rump is facing you. You go back to ignoring it.
[2 actions left.]
>We should probably make room in inventory for some other things. Maybe like making another bomb? Or figuring out how to make an actual armor out of centipede plates, we probably need to make strings, and make holes on the plates, probably need to get a spear the next cycle to do that.
Using the centipede plates for armor would be a good idea, if you can figure out how to actually strap it to you. You pull one of the plates towards you, idly running your fingers along the edges. You do need something to bore holes into these plates, but even with a sufficiently sharp spear, it would likely take a few cycles of boring. The chitinous material is tough, strong enough to deflect projectiles. It won't be an easy task to drill holes into it.
The scavengers would know what to do about this. You've seen some walk around with these plates strapped to them. You don't know what sort of tools they'd need to achieve such a thing, but evidently they've been able to do this for quite some time now. You can't tell what they used to hold the plates in place either; presumably some sort of plant material, but what that would be, you don't know.
You hold one of the plates against your torso, measuring it against yourself. It's big enough to protect you from suffering intensive damage should you get attacked by something like a mud lizard. It might not protect you fully, given the jaw strength of mud lizards, but it would at least cushion some of the force and buy you some time to act. Of course, if at all possible, you don't want to have to face one of them. But if worse comes to worst...
You set the plate aside with a sigh. You'll come back to this later.
[1 action left.]
>Pet the pink lizard? Lizard cute? Everything likes pets. This is a cardinal rule of life.
... you're not inclined to agree. If anything, the fauna and the flora are generally aggressive.
The lizard still has its back to you. You shift towards it cautiously, gently brushing the dust out of the way as you move. You shouldn't sneak up on it, but at the same time, you're not sure how you would get its attention. While you're less concerned about the amount of damage other types of lizards can cause to your puppet, you still don't want to be bitten.
You take another step, and your foot throws up a cloud of dust. You don't react in time to stop yourself from breathing it in, and you end up in another coughing fit, straining to get the dust out of your lungs and the air in. The lizard turns around at the sound of your coughing, and it merely growls at you, frills twitching menacingly. You quickly retreat to your relatively dust free corner to recuperate.
Though still unpleasant, your lungs are healing well. You're not as sore when the coughing fit ends. You should be fully healed in another cycle's time. In the meantime, you settle yourself against the wall of the temple, crossing your arms. Halfway there now at least.
You... will have to deal with the scavengers come next cycle. You haven't been monitoring this part of your facility grounds in a long time, but even when you were, you saw bands of scavengers inhabiting this area. The pearls you have should at least grant you safe passage. You might even be able to ask them for a favor with the centipede armor plates you have.
...
That blue eyed infant. Blue eyes are rare, and de novo blue eyes even more so. You don't remember the adult's eye color, but the infant's blue eyes could easily have been a result of recessive traits being passed on. You'd need to see both parents to be able to make any guesses, or sample their genome. You'd just need some of their fur, maybe some of their excrement, or even just something they've touched. As long as you can swab cells from them, you...
... can't do anything with it, because you no longer have the facilities to analyze the samples. And again, you really don't have a point in doing so at this point.
There was another scavenger with blue eyes. You saw it many, many years ago. Just one out of so many other scavengers; the genes for blue eyes must not be common on your facility grounds. Surely this infant has to be a descendant.
Maybe you'll never know. It no longer matters, you suppose.