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!

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

But they were big and metal and spidery! How could they not be evil?

"Violently?" he asked. "That would make them... evil."

[notmyownage]

"They're machines, machines can't be evil!" Well, probably not. Maybe if the person who programmed them was evil.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Unless they're made for nefarious purposes," he hypothesized, eyes going wide and intense. "What if they've been programmed to conquer the island?"

[notmyownage]

. . .

Okay, so that was actually fairly likely. This was Fandom they were talking about.

"But!" said Claudia. "Cute!"

Maybe she could reprogram them.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

In Wes's book, that was some pretty phenomenal short-sightedness, but okay.

"And yet," he said solemnly, with the expression of someone who has to break some bad news. "Homicidal."

[notmyownage]

"We don't know that yet," Claudia insisted.

One of the smaller spiders crawled up onto her leg and appeared to look up at her. Claudia tried waving nicely at it.

It jumped at her face.

Moments later, it lay in the dirt, pinned there by Claudia's leatherman.

"Okay, fine, they might be evil."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Wesley nodded smugly. "Thank you," he pronounced.

The fact that her weapon was more effective than his was going to go unmentioned, yup.

[notmyownage]

"You still maybe don't want to be stabbing them with a knife."

Yeah, sorry, Claudia couldn't not mention it.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Another spider scuttled by the log on which he had stationed himself, and he lunged for it, hoping to pin it to the ground with his knife. It made a strange crackling noise that sounded a bit like laughter and scuttled away.

"I suppose that's true," he conceded, a bit put out. "It's a testament to their strength, I suppose."

Nope, it was a testament to their being made of metal. Good try, Wes.

[notmyownage]

"Yes," said Claudia, trying not to sound too patronizing. "Iron and copper can be very tough."

She was attempting to pry open the carapace of spider she had pinned. It made a horrible, grinding whine, and Claudia winced and let it go -- not just because it sounded almost alive, but because she hated to think of what damage it was doing to its inner workings.

"The tesla might work on them," she mused aloud. "Short them out, assuming their artificial brain is electrically based and not . . ." She grimaced. "Magic."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Oh, gosh. Wesley didn't reccomend trying to dissect these things. No, he did not.

"Tesla?" he repeated. Science wasn't exactly his thing. But while he'd initially thought these spiders were some strange demon breed, he was reconsidering. They were a little too... robotic, in a sense. Definitely human-made.

[notmyownage]

Had Claudia known the direction of his thoughts, she would have had to give him a resounding, sarcastic "No, really?"

"Did I say 'tesla'?" She asked, covering wildly. "Uh, I mean 'taser'. You know, zap 'em dead." Which was essentially what she was talking about, just, you know, long range, plasma based, invented in the earlier part of the 20th century, and technically stolen from a top secret international storage facility for dangerous artifacts.

But, really, basically the same thing.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Uh...huh.

"I suppose you're from the future, then?" he ventured, smiling knowingly. A year at Fandom had taught him how to make these kinds of leaps. Don't be too impressed.

[notmyownage]

Well, that was an easy one. "Nope. Just Minneapolis." She looked up. "Oh, unless you're from the past. In which case, sure, I'd be from your future."

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

Oh. There went that theory, then. He couldn't help being a little disappointed.

"Nine or ten years in the past, give or take," he answered with a shrug. "Though I would've guessed you were from -- er, later."

Stupid Fandom-ingrained jump-to-conclusions instincts.

[notmyownage]

Claudia was trying to subdue one of the larger spiders, hoping she'd be able to get a better look at its inner workings. "Nope. I'm a contemporary. I'm guessing you've got more . . ." Another grimace. "Magic where you're from, though."

Look, she still got grumpy over using that term, okay? At least she wasn't launching into another "magic is just stuff science hasn't explained yet" lecture.

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Right in one," he agreed. Noting the grimace, he shrugged a bit and added, "Sorry."

That was something he'd never quite gotten used to here -- the sheer amount of people who were uncomfortable with references to mystical things like demons and magic. It was just how he was raised.

[notmyownage]

Well, that was better than the defensiveness she saw a lot.

"'Snot your fault," she said. One of the spiders started crawling up her back, and she flailed around a moment before managing to swipe it off, getting a scratch across her hand for her troubles. "I guess having the evil be something mechanical was bound to happen, huh."

She wasn't too pleased about that.