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 Posted: Fri Oct 29, 2021 6:33 am
It was not among their mission objectives specifically, but Fysarius had to find peace somewhere. There was only so much “investigating” of the earthlings he could take. They were an… emotionally varied bunch, seeming to vacillate wildly between extreme rage and offense, and overeager curiosity, often with a few too many opinions to successfully be supported by their meager lifespans. They were kind of obnoxious, kind of selfish, kind of stupid, kind of too much for Fysarius to handle in extended doses. He was exhausted. Six weeks was much too long to spend away from home.
He’d lamented several times that he would have desperately preferred his first mission be somewhere with less sentient creatures. Somewhere that would be mostly peaceful. An easy harvest. Somewhere that was only bees, bats, and spiders, or something like them.
Maybe it wouldn’t make use of all the training the Vanguard had done, but it would’ve been a gentler introduction to stepping off of Velencya, rather than them being booted into this bizarre and alive world of humans and their issues. They didn’t even seem to like each other, usually. Fysarius had no idea why he was expected to like them, either.
But it was more enjoyable at the edge of their field, away from the city proper. Things hopped in the long grasses. Birds and rodents fluttered and scurried around the trees. There were sounds, so many sounds of wind rustling and creatures chittering and grass swaying. They were unfamiliar at first, and so worthy of suspicion, but it had been weeks. Nothing ill-wrought came of them, yet.
Fysarius lay with his cheek as flat to the dirt as could be managed through the foliage. Sprigs of grass poked into his ear, stuck up at odd angles through his hair, left cellulose stains on his pale uniform.
But there was an ant colony down here, and for each minuscule creature that passed by, he had to scan it.
It turned out there were very few genetic disparities among individuals, much less than between individual humans. Maybe that was why they were so synchronous; one straight little line, with troops following one after the other, back and forth. Dutiful and diligent, and not a one anything but.
And they were small enough to stick in a jar and take home. A hand shot into the air, fingers uncurling as he waited for Ny to pass him a vial.
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Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2022 11:26 am
A small glass jar was set delicately in Fysarius’ outstretched hand. Ny stood near his legs, arms folded behind her back and feet crossed at the ankles as she peered over and down at him to inspect the current object of his interest. This planet didn’t hold very much for her. She couldn't say she felt particularly strongly toward anything present here, and she instead found it satisfying enough to watch others be interested. Fysarius seemed enamored by the foliage and the arthropods, and similarly impassioned toward his dislike of nearly everything else, and Ny understood his enthusiasm, of course.
Just didn’t share it.
They were working here, so she felt toward it like she expected to feel toward any assigned task: some sense of obligation, but rarely excitement. She was pleased to see Fysarius happy and engaged with his interests, and was even happy to help facilitate his projects, but it wasn’t so personal to her as it was to him. Her joy was more for seeing someone she adored enjoying himself, rather than actually appreciating the task at hand.
Though, 'the task at hand' wasn't really this, either... They had gathered some energy and had conversations with some humans, but nothing significant or meaningful. Ny hadn't approached any senshi or knights to learn of their worlds, and it wasn't a stretch to assume that if she hadn't, Fysarius likely hadn't, either. In her defense, she expected some difficulty in communicating with them on her own, and more than just 'not looking forward to it,' Ny was pretty sure she was actually full-blown dreading it.
For the best, she supposed. Someone with a reasonable head had to be here to make sure Fysarius didn’t get into too much trouble, as he was wont to do when he got excited… And enough others of the Vanguard seemed more excited to deal with the type of interpersonal matters neither she not Fysarius excelled at.
Maybe the best the could do was just fiddle with the trees and the bugs while they were here.
And there was still that off chance that even though they weren’t mingling with the humans, there could still be something dangerous lurking. Fys couldn’t be left alone to fend for himself while so plainly distracted by other things, and Ny would be too happy for the opportunity to see what sort of dangers this world held.
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2022 8:57 am
Lyndin was not usually suspicious when studies were met with silence. Most of the time, he would have been glad to let someone make peace with their environment and leave them to their work. But, this was Earth. He was worried. And, curious. He’d been tending to a few things and collecting a few samples, so he’d seen them before. Every time he glanced over, they seemed to be in the same place. Which meant, they’d either found something very interesting, or found themselves something very troubling. Naturally, his curiosity and concern for the Cadets won over, and he stood near to them so he could peer down at their projects. Neither seemed to notice him, but he had approached silently from behind. He observed for a few seconds, and then asked in a pleasant, soft voice, “What are you investigating?”
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Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2023 11:23 am
Fysarius may not have watched the Commodore approach, but he did not seem particularly spooked by the unexpected presence. He had no reason to be, not with Ny there. He expected she would alert and defend him from any threats that arose, so anything in the vicinity must not be of concern to her, including any unanticipated arrivals.
Besides, it pleased him an inordinate amount to be graced with this opportunity to discuss his findings. “Ants!” Fysarius declared proudly, as if this was an amazing and unique discovery. He picked himself up into a proper sit so that he could face the Commodore and then swept an armful of jars up from the ground and into his grasp.
“There are so many! And they are so tiny! Look at this one, look at this one,” he demanded, selecting a jar and shoving it toward Lyndin to observe. It was filled with a small mound of dirt, a few sprigs of grass, a stick, and exactly six tiny, black ants. “These are Monomorium minimum, the little black ant- I didn’t name them. They eat bird guano and dead insects and predate on moth larvae, and when they mate, they do so midair. I found them over there, in the soil by that tree.” He pointed to a tree not a handful of yards away.
He set the one jar from his armload down and produced another. “And look, just here I found Solenopsis invicta, the red imported fire ant. They are both ants, but they are very different. These live in very large colonies, and they will use their own bodies to build protective structures for the queen, if she is in danger. They have waste management behaviors, and they are hostile and venomous. Its toxins can cause anaphylaxis in anything that gets in their way- humans too. People have died.”
And then, to further his point, Fysarius raised a hand to the Commodore’s eye level to showcase a great swollen mound over his thumb joint. “This is… two bites, I think. But when the whole colony attacks, it is devastating.”
He set his jars down, carefully turning them so that the labels Ny had dutifully placed were facing him.
“I think the humans are not very interested in Monomorium minimum,” Fysarius continued, showing the display on his ComTech to the Commodore to see the information it had retrieved from current human databases. “There is significantly less research done on them than on the Solenopsis invicta, which the humans seem very, very interested in. The ants are my favorite too, so far. But we have found some arachnids, and beetles, and moths, and a big grasshopper.”
His golden gaze scrapped over his jar collection, consisting of well over a dozen specimens, and his head canted very slightly in thought. “There are more specimens here than I thought there would be. I don’t have enough jars.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2023 2:01 pm
A name was scritched on a thin slip of paper in dark ink and then adhered to the side of one of the small jars. Ny snapped a photo of the specimen inside (a cute, stripey beetle: Leptinotarsa juncta) with her ComTech for identification and cataloging purposes later. Then she set the jar among the other cadet's various collection and turned a bright smile up to Lyndin. She didn't know with any certainty that what they were doing was particularly important for this mission, but maybe it would be more useful once they were back home! There were a lot of strange things to harvest here!
She offered her own insect selection for the Commodore to observe, this time housing a white and speckled ermine moth, but her expression was much more sheepish than all of Fysarius' exuberance. They hadn't ever been anywhere that had such an abundance of live samples to collect, and it did feel... a teeny tiny bit like they were taking a lot, even though there were still all manner of tiny insects crawling on the ground just nearby.
If the creatures made Fysarius happy, maybe they should like to make sure these species could grow on Velenia too, once it was reclaimed.
But maybe that was getting too far ahead of herself.
She 'tink tink tink'ed her nail to the bottom of the jar in thought, and the moth gave a little flutter of its wings. "Sorry," Ny whispered quietly, voice craggly from lack of use. And then, because she knew Fysarius wouldn't care to ask (because she expected the answer was irrelevant to him), but they still needed to know since it would be relevant when it came time for them to leave: "Will there be space to take very much back with us?" She'd have preferred it if Fysarius would do all the questioning, but it was still Ny's duty to step up when he refused.
Though she didn't like it.
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 7:25 pm
Lyndin could not deny the amusement he found from their enthusiasm, but his smile was kind and his laugh was good-natured. Mirth reached his eyes and he nodded before crouching so he could peer into their jars. “I like your passion. Your attention to detail warrants great commendation. You two make a good team. Although,” he did not touch the jars, he didn’t want to interfere with their collection, “There may be space. We’ll have used up some supplies, I think we can make some room. But we may be able to come up with something better. If all goes well, I’d like to establish a connection with Earth.” He’d like to do a lot more than that, but he was trying to be practical and manage one task at a time. There was always a bigger goal to reach for, though. “You should try to do what research you can, now. We might have the space, but I don’t know if we can guarantee their safety in the long run. Travelling might be difficult for them, their bodies are very small.” He knew he didn’t have to remind them that their lives were not more valuable than any others, and it seemed as though they had done a good job of giving them a reasonable space to accommodate. These weren’t cages. There were artificial habitats. Back on Velenia, he had seen cages, imposed on their people by the invaders. On Velencya, their artificial habitat was far kinder. He doubted they could communicate with the creatures the two had collected, so there was no knowing what they wanted. They couldn’t safely assume what the creatures wanted, either. Lyndin he could tell that Fysarius was full of enthusiasm, such born of a love for the creatures, and not out of a desire to control them. He didn’t worry about their collection nor their research.
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Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2023 8:05 am
A connection with Earth?
"What does that mean?" Fysarius hadn't gone out of his way to meet with many- any- of the humans who'd come to greet them during their initial landing, but he understood that there were definitely... mixed reviews regarding the Vanguard's presence. Some seemed excited and curious, some more reserved and wary. Which seemed a little bizarre, considering all the senshi and knights who had their own planets they should be tending to, and who should just be visitors here, themselves.
He didn't know what a 'connection' with this planet would look like, but the travel had been... not-expedient, and Fysarius was given to believe that numerous return trips were more of a drain than their world could feasibly afford. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if they had access to Earth's plentiful resources- or their Mauvians. Several called this planet home, and they had the tools to send their senshi back and forth with what seemed like pretty much no effort at all.
Maybe it wasn't that difficult.
And then he would have greater opportunity to see all the various ants that this world hosted. "They have tiny bodies, but they're very hardy!" Fysarius assured. "It is more troublesome that they live very, very short lives. Even perfectly cared for, I think they would be carcasses before we were able to establish any sort of habitat or colony of them on Velencya. ...It makes learning of them more difficult. These could be nearing the end of their lifespans, already. How am I to even know?"
"I could still take their tiny bodies home, I suppose," Fysarius grumbled thoughtfully. "They would take up very little space if they had already passed and didn't need a suitable working ecosystem to travel with. Then I could at least still have access to their genome, if I needed it..."
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