Main Campfire, Saturday Afternoon

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley somehow managed to make it all the way out to the campfire before he saw -- it. A cluster of enormous metal spiders. And on top of that, they all appeared to be trying to roast marshmallows over the fire.

He shrieked -- in a completely manly way, of course -- and suddenly felt incredibly grateful that he had never quite broken the habit of carrying a knife around with him, just in case. He had to hop around a bit to get it out of his shoe, but then he had it in hand and, with a battle cry that he certainly thought would sound fearsome, leapt forward and went after the little metal buggers.

Dear lord, they were tough.

[[Open campfire filled with moddable spiders, hooray!]]

Comments

[notmyownage]

Claudia couldn't help but notice the commotion -- and Wesley's attempts to dismantle what appeared to be mechanical spiders with a knife.

Really, some people.

Lucky for him, Claudia always had at least a multitool on her person. She came running in, holding her leatherman aloft.

"Dude," she called. "Dude, stop trying to stab metal!"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"But I'm making headway!" he shouted over the sound of metal hitting... well, metal. And then one of the spiders lunged at him, at which point he shrieked and jumped onto one of the logs encircling the campfire.

Some people indeed, Claudia.

[notmyownage]

"Yeah, or you're making them angry." Claudia unfolded the pliers from her leatherman, but didn't swoop in for the attack. "Actually, they're kind of cute."

Oh Claudia, no.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"No, they're not!" he protested, appalled. "They're demonic!" He was now all but cowering on the log, even though most of the larger spiders could reach him up here.

[notmyownage]

"Uh huh," said Claudia idly. "Powered by demonic steam." One of the smaller spiders waved a leg at her, and Claudia grinned back, leaning in closer. "Hey there, little guy."

Then it tried to stab her in the face with its leg.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Demonic! I told you!" he exclaimed. Nope, he was not budging from this log. Not at all. "They want to kill you!"

...Or they were just mad about the whole being-poked-with-a-knife thing. Who knows.

[notmyownage]

Claudia fell backward as she avoided the stabby leg. ". . . Maybe it's just how they say hi?"

Claudia didn't want the steam powered spiders to be evil. They looked so cool!

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully was heading over to the campfire to try and roast some food experiments when she heard the shriek. The sight of Wesley and Claudia dealing with -- huge spiders? The hell?

"Are those made of metal?" she asked, picking up a stick to poke at one, and then having to play tug-of-war with it.

[notmyownage]

"Steampunk spiders!" Claudia agreed. She was maybe a bit too pleased with the concept, if not the fact that they kept trying to attack her face.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Fascinated, Scully lifted up the stick, with the spider on the end. It immediately scuttled down the stick and started walking up her arm, which had her staring for a minute until it leaped for her eyes. "AHhh!... okay! Not that close!" She batted it away, and then it grabbed onto her fingers and held on. "HEY!"

[notmyownage]

"Okay, so they're possibly homicidal steampunk spiders," Claudia noted. "Or maybe really friendly with no concept of mortality.'

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Or personal space," Scully said, frantically shaking one off her finger and then sucking on her pinched digits. "What have they been doing, except jumping way too close for comfort?"

[notmyownage]

"Mostly crawling around and scratching at you. Keep an eye on the bigger ones, those might be plotting something."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully's expression probably said waht she thought of that better than any words.

"Then we have to stop them!"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"So it appears," Wesley replied, evidently less than thrilled with this turn of events. By now he was standing on a log, cowering from avoiding the spiders except for the occasional swipe of the knife in their direction.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully was seriously impressed with how strong the little sucker was. "Where did they come from? There's so many-- wait, why are they attacking? Are they hungry?"

Okay, that thought had her hoping up on a log too, as ridiculous as that was as a method of defense. It wasn't like the little things couldn't climb.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Very possibly," Wesley said darkly, rapping one particularly small spider on the head as it lunged at his feet. "Awful little buggers."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully might have been remembering that time that all her fluids got sucked out by luminescent spiders even tinier than this. She jabbed the stick at another one, trying to smack them away, and then did a little dance as one tried to crawl up her ankle. "Get off get off get off gaaah!"

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley leapt across the logs to the one next to Scully's, then dove toward the spider attempting to crawl up her leg. He took aim with his knife and hurled it at the spider, hoping that at the very least he could manage to pin it.

[dollpocalypse]

"Whoa, awesome!" Topher exclaimed, spotting the spiders. If they were real creatures, they would make him skittish, but since they were metal...

"Did you guys, like, make these?" he asked the people already crowded around the spiders.

[notmyownage]

"I wish," said Claudia, who was still trying to get one of the spiders to hold still long enough to get at its innards without it grinding its gears at her. "I wouldn't have made them attack spiders."

[dollpocalypse]

"But how cool would that be?" he exclaimed. "And I bet I could totally reprogram these, too. We could make them, like..."

He considered it.

"Cheerleader spiders. Go, Gremlins!"

[notmyownage]

Claudia grinned, poking at the nearest spider with her leatherman again. "That'd be awesome. I'm still working out where the central processor is, but once I do, we should totally reprogram it."

[dollpocalypse]

"You program?" he all but squeaked, getting steadily more excited. He gestured eagerly to himself and explained, "I program!"

Yes, Topher, imagine that.

[notmyownage]

"I got that, when you talked about programming." He was a cute little nerdy guy, wasn't he? "I program. I also invent and build and experiment. Claudia Donovan."