The Kumo Story

[Shaon]

((This is a collaboration between 3kul and I. It continues directly from 'The origins of Kumo Jinrui.' Reading 'Origins of HollowEyes' would help some, too. ))

Morbidly curious, the duo walked through the hole in the wall, to examine the damage caused by their youngest brother.

While dodging the many corpses, they suddenly heard a weak shout:

"Go to hell, you huge mistake!"

And before they could think of anything, they were sent hurtling through a huge blue tunnel, in a one way pathway to the end, wherever it led.

[3kul]

Little Sister was wandering across the barren wastelands of the Human Homeworld, the long home stretch before she got to the Sanctuary. She was bored with patrolling the borders, and planned on finishing up early today, which actually meant that she would take as long as possible to head back.

~Curse you for leaving me in this tiresome place, brother...~ Little Sister thought, thoroughly fed up with being here. Humans provided little to no additional abilities, other than legs, which she currently lacked. However, human legs were not all that great, and she could maneuvre just fine with her hair. ~It's too boring, and there's nothing good to eat.~

As if in reply to her complaints, a large blue vortex opened up in front of her. It remained as it was for a moment, before hurling some kind of weird monster out of it. The term 'weird' was being exceedingly generous, as the creature was a writhing mess of gangly legs and wings.

~Looks like my day just got a whole lot more interesting...~ Little Sister thought, advancing on the new arrival, a hungry look in her eye.

((In this time of her life, Little Sister doesn't actually have her spider-like legs yet, and moves about on extented tendrils (kind of like a squid )))

[Shaon]

Tsubasa was sent out in a heap, legs over wings.

It took a few minutes for him to get himself back together. Only when he was uncrinkling his wings, he noticed Little Sister approaching him hungerly.

He froze.

[3kul]

~Oh, you are making this too easy...~ She thought as she leapt onto Tsubasa. She quickly began to wrap him with dozens of tendrils to prevent his escape, and brought her characteristic Parasitian tongue close to his face.

She snapped it open, and latched it onto his head, beginning the process of swallowing him whole.

((*Expects a severe beating from Tsubasa fans...*))

[Shaon]

Tsubasa went without resistance. He was numb from the carnage he saw not long ago at all, and couldn't bear hurting something at the moment, even if it resulted in death.

---

Kumo popped out of a warp, not far away, landing much more smoothly than Tsubasa.

Noticing that the Wing Spider did not appear with him, he called out mentally.

Tsubasa?

No response.

Tsubasa!?

Silence.
Worried for his friend, he began pacing around in circles.

[3kul]

Within minutes, Tsubasa was no more. Little Sister began to wonder about the possibilites of what she could do with this fascinating new genetic material. The legs would be the first things that she wanted to add on, but it would take time to grow those.

For the first time she could remember, she actually hurried across the wasteland to return to her quarters in the Sanctuary, eager to get back.

((Yep, and that's the story of Little Sister's legs. She kills and eats someone elses character, and the world hates her just a little more. *waits for the hate*))

----------------------------------------------------

Sao'tal was on patrol as well, wandering around the wastelands on the opposite side of the Sanctuary. He took his work seriously, and both respected and admired the Saviour's cause. The only thing he respected more than that was his Eldest Brother, who'd left them a few years ago.

As he continued to keep a watchful eye on the horizon, he noticed something strange moving about not too far from him. This seemed most peculiar, as it had definately not been there a few moments ago, and yet it was there now. Somehow, Sao'tal's vigilance had failed.

He began to approach the strange being cautiously, unsure as to what it was doing or why it was doing it. He had no idea how to react to this, having only ever been taught to deal with humans. He ended up deciding on a direct approach, shouting out to the mysterious creature. "You there! What are you doing? Do you require saving?"

[Shaon]

Kumo stopped, hearing some complete and utter jibberish, to his ears.

Looking at the beetle-like creature who had approached him, Kumo noticed a passing relation to what his own brothers looked like. He assumed that this creature, too, was another Kumo.

"You too?"

[3kul]

"あんた と ですか?"

This had to be the least likely thing that Sao'tal had expected to happen. He had no idea that there were other languages aside from English, so didn't know how to react to this at all.

His first instinct was to do exactly the same as that of all english speakers when they encounter someone who doesn't speak their language - repeat the same thing that he said before, except in a simpler manner, louder and slower.

"Do you..." He pointed to Kumo. "Want to go..." He began to walk a little. "To the Sanctuary?" He pointed to a large grey building in the distance, fairly confident that he'd gotten his point across.

((Yep, Kumo speaks Japanese, as Shaon pointed out in the Origins of Kumo Jinrui thread. Please excuse it if my translation's wrong, it's just that 'you too' by itself sounds really weird in Japanese I used hiragana to emphasize on the failure to communicate, hopefully I won't have to cut-paste too much though...))

[Shaon]

"Is that where the labratory is? I didn't think it was so gray."

Kumo was confused, but got the general gist of things, and walked up beside Sao'tal.

[3kul]

"実験室 が ある ところ に それ は ありますか? 私はそれがとても灰色だったことを考えなかった..."

Noticing that Kumo had taken an interest in the Sanctuary, yet was still speaking gibberish, he assumed that Kumo was very ill, and needed medical attention. "Of course, how foolish of me to assume otherwise... Very well, let's get you to the Sanctuary."

He began to lead Kumo back towards the Santcuary, every now and then stopping to make sure that the possibly delirious Kumo was following him. He noticed his other siblings spot him, and they each enquired as to whether or not he needed help.

He stopped for a moment, and nudged Kumo to one side. With a shrill hissing noise, he emitted a harsh jet of steam from the two limbs on his back, and then quickly shut it off. His siblings acknowledged this and continued their patrol. Much to his annoyance, it seemed that Youngest Sister was shirking her patrol duties again, and he was glad that it had been him who found Kumo, and not her.

----------------------------------------------------

"Saviour, I have found somebody who is very ill and needs your help."

The doors to the Courtyard opened, and Serpells made his way down from the Observatory. Finally, some of the Remnants had realized how much better their lives could be and was ready to accept his help. He was in for a surprise once he reached the Courtyard, and he jumped back in shock as he practically ran right into Kumo.

"Protector, what exactly is the meaning of this?" Sao'tal could see that the man had misunderstood the news, and was now a tad irritated. "Forgive me Saviour, but I was patrolling when I happened across this person. He doesn't seem to speak real words, and he was running around and around in circles when I found him. I figured that he might be able to help our cause if you healed him."

Serpells seemed skeptical, having no idea where this creature had come from, or what was wrong with it, but he was curious nonetheless. "How strange... Very well, please inform your siblings that there is no need to continue patrol for today, and to head on up to the Meeting Room if they have anything which they need to discuss with me."

Sao'tal nodded and exitted, leaving Kumo alone with Serpells. Serpells had no idea what was wrong with this strange creature, but Sao'tal had mentioned odd words, so he tried talking to it. "What is it you wanted to see us about?"

((translations courtesy of babelfish, because I got lazy ))

[Shaon]

As Sao'tal led him around, Kumo stared.

This wasn't the labratory....

As Serpells spoke more apparent jibberish, Kumo also noticed he looked similar to the description of the 'Savior of the Human Race that failed at life' story... but the stories weren't real....

"This isn't the labratory... where am I?"

[3kul]

"これは実験室でない... 私はどこにいるか?"

Serpells recognized the language as one referred to by his former colleagues, but he had no idea what it meant, or how to speak it. Thankfully there was a simple way to rectify this problem, and he pulled a syringe out from an inner pocket. He stuck it into a vial and filled it up with a strange substance.

"Hold still please." He said in a rather clinical manner, and he didn't seem to care whether or not Kumo understood what he was saying. He jabbed the syringe into Kumo's head and quickly injected the contents into him. Before Kumo could react, Serpells whipped out a small board with writing in English on it, and pictures. He read it as he pointed to the words.

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. T H E Q U I C K B R O W N F O X J U M P S O V E R T H E L A Z Y D O G."

He compacted to board again and returned it to his pocket. "Congratulations, you now know the English alphabet." He began to walk partway down a corridor, getting rid of the syringe in a nearby disposal unit. He turned back to Kumo, but remained where he was so as not to be perceived as a threat.

"What I have just injected into you are Parasitian brain cells from the part of the brain that enables a Parasitian to learn how to speak. Parasitians are exceptionally gifted with languages, and by tomorrow you should have a decent enough grasp of English to understand what I am saying to you right now, should you remember it. There's a 50% chance that the cells will help with that too."

He paused for a moment to let this sink in to the creatures mind, hoping that he'd remember most of it. "These cells will make their way to the part of your brain that enables you to learn how to speak, and find a way to co-exist with your current brain cells."

He seemed to have forgotten by now that Kumo had only the vaguest grasps of the English language at this point, and was caught up in the moment of describing the treatment. "I've managed to accelerate your learning rate to almost triple that of a regular Parasitian - that's right, triple - but test results seem to indicate that within a week your learning rate will have slowed down to that of a regular Parasitian. Although all things considered, that's still pretty impressive, as you can still learn a new language within a few days."

He pulled out the board once more, and waved his hand across it, clearing it. He fiddled with it for a little while, before showing Kumo a small picture of a spider in a grey building, like the Sanctuary, with the words 'home' 'rest' and 'safe' underneath it, and the board pronounce and spelled each of these. He waved his hand across it again, and quickly drew a picture of himself, writing 'Saviour' 'help' and 'friend' underneath it.

He clicked a button on the board after it had finished, and handed it to Kumo. He made sure that Kumo gripped it tightly, and felt his arms go numb in the process. Looking down, he noticed many fine hairs coating the creature, some of which had gotten on to his hands - a most curious reaction. "I'll be back in one hour. Please remain here." As he walked down a corridor towards the Meeting Room, the board began to do it's job.

To anyone looking at it, the board was simply making a strange musical sound whilst changing shapes and colours gradually, and appeared to be a nice sort of thing to give a young child to calm it down. In actuality, it was racing through images and words from the English language at a speed not perceptible to the regular senses. The Parasitian brain cells inside of Kumo however, were able to react to this speed, and rapidly relayed this information throughout the rest of his brain.

As Kumo gazed at the swirling colours and shapes, and listened to the warbling music, he felt his brain tingling a little, but nothing else. He was acquiring all of this new knowledge without even realizing it.

[Shaon]

Kumo stared at the strange board. Saviour... Saviour he knew. Sometimes Tsubasa overheard some of the scientists talking about a Savior, sometimes jokingly, sometimes seriously.

As he learned English, he wondered. Was this that Saviour?

[3kul]

Serpells walk accelerated to a brisk pace as he turned down one corridor after another. Something about this spider-like creature struck him as very familiar, although the very idea that it could even be associated with the people he was thinking of was ludicrous, as they were on the other side of the multiverse.

Not surprisingly, the only one not present in the Meeting Room was Little Sister. The other Protectors glared at the spot where she should have been sitting, as she never seemed to take patrolling seriously. Given that she usually ended up getting the job done anyway, and that even if she discovered anything, she couldn't actually communicate her findings to them, Serpells more often than not forgave this.

"Any news from the patrolling, Protectors?" Serpells asked in a very business-like tone. "Nothing significant to report from the Eastern quadrant, Saviour." Pilelia answered in a somewhat softened tone - although she was quite serious, she was unable to convey it. "All has been quiet in the Western quadrant, Saviour." Tausk added, somewhat disappointed that another day had gone by without anything important happening. "Other than the unknown visitor, I observed nothing of importance in the Southern quadrant, Saviour." Sao'tal finished up.

Pilelia and Tausk both seemed quite interested with the idea of a newcomer, and were eager to see him, but Serpells would not allow it. "He does not yet speak English fluently, and I am suspicious of his origins. If he is indeed from who I think he is, then he must be watched carefully."

The three Protectors present nodded, and waited to hear what needed to be done. "Older Sister, please monitor his movements and actions from a distance, but do not allow yourself to be seen by him. Younger Brother, proceed to the Observatory to keep an eye on the Remnants, just in case. Older Brother, that leaves you to escort him to some suitable quarters. Exert force if necessary, although if he becomes too much trouble, don't hesitate to retreat."

Sao'tal nodded, deeply troubled by that last line of instructions. He headed back to find Kumo and reached him soon enough, noticing that Kumo was using the learning-aid for English. "Follow me please." He said clearly, hoping that Kumo understood at least one word, and began to proceed down several corridors to a small, cell-like room not too dissimilar from the ones they resided in. "Rest here. Talk in the morning." He said loudly, assuming that Kumo had followed him.

[Shaon]

Kumo did in fact follow Sao'tal, quite silently. Mostly because he was thinking of this new language he learned, and the odd connections between this Saviour and the Saviour of the stories the scientists told him.

As he was left in the cell, he broadcasted something mentally.

Tsubasa? Tsubasa, doko ni imasuka? Tsubasa, hanashite kudasai!

Noting the lack of response, Kumo occasionally called out for his friend until he fell asleep.

((I'm switching to phonetic japanese instead of automatically translating it now, obviously, since he's now bilingual.))