Thread: Lucy in the Sky Lands Characters: Karolina Dean and Xavin Where: Out in bfe desert What: Karolina finally lands and is pretty much immediately a bug target. When: Late evening, Day 10 Rating: Low.
Karolina lasted about seven minutes on her own before finding out, the hard way, about the bugs.
As if landing in a desert wasn’t enough. As if waking up disoriented, covered in blood from various cuts and scratches, with no idea where she was or who she was beyond her name, claustrophobic and curled awkwardly, half-buckled into the seat of some kind of shuttle that had come to rest upside-down in the sand wasn’t enough. No—she had to deal with giant freaking insects, too.
She’d kicked out at the deformed door, twisted from the landing. It was awkward work; her legs were too long and the space too small to get the power she needed. Karolina kicked and kicked, the muffled thudding sounds echoing around the tiny space upon each impact she made with the metal and inadvertently drawing even more attention to herself. On the fourth kick the door buckled and the fifth dislodged it from its hinges entirely.
It took some creative maneuvering, but Karolina eventually was able to pull herself out of the wrecked pod. She winced as she stood, her body stiff from being curled in one position for so long. She stretched her arms and legs carefully, the shadows around her shifting as her skin glowed blue and yellow and pink, light emanating off of every exposed inch.
The first bug came at her from behind. Karolina barely heard it in time; it was sheer instinct that made her take to the sky the instant before the centipede hit the sand where she’d been standing. It was huge, large enough to rear up onto multiple back legs to try to reach where she was hovering just slightly above its head. She jerked back, her hands flying out to blast the bug with a concentrated beam of multi-colored light. It shrunk back in pain, smoking slightly and swaying before falling back to the ground, unmoving. There were others to take its place instantly, swarming over the corpse.
Karolina flew higher, trying to get out of reach. It worked until the flying bugs showed up.