Five Pebbles (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
labugrynthian) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
datadiving2026-03-22 03:58 pm
labugrynthian) wrote in datadiving2026-03-22 03:58 pmhollow knight/rain world crossover content
[ five pebbles condescending to slugcatbugs about karma five hours unskippable]
labugrynthian) wrote in datadiving2026-03-22 03:58 pm
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Five Pebbles notes the increased activity of this particular one, and reviews its behaviour; among the Overseers that he's vaguely ordered to follow Hornet in her further journeys, it seems to have taken the position of the one to bear his messages to her in particular, preferring to have the task above all the others...
It's not unheard of for Overseers to develop a certain preference for observing one type of creature over another; perhaps that is what's happened here. He makes another note of it, then puts the information aside for later.
Snipping is an apt word; a flock of beaked creatures crests over a nearby ridge, tripping and stomping and tumbling over each other in an ungainly forward motion that never quite seems to knock them off their feet. Their bright eyes are sharp despite their uncoordinated movements, however, and as they regain solid ground they begin to spread out, their scrambling efficiently covering the distance between them and potential hiding spots.
The jumble of collapsed buildings and decaying structures on what seems to have been some kind of flattened floodplain provides some cover, though - as Hornet might observe - sometimes it's not quite deep enough to serve as a hiding spot. One beast shoves its head into a tunnel and pulls back with a wriggling centipede; one snap crushes the creature in its jaws, almost cutting it in half.
The Overseer that Pebbles had noted as having an attachment pops up in a tangle of debris not far from Hornet, waving bright yellow tendrils. It blinks urgently, its body swaying as it looks between the incoming flock of hunters and her, standing not far from it.
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She'll keep it in mind. Dealing with pack hunters is tricky even when their movements are predictable. She can go from managing the situation to being swarmed in an instant. She focuses on the one at the edge of the group, separated from its peers by both slight distance and the slumped ruins of some long collapsed building. It's currently preoccupied shoving its head into a deep crevice, probably in search of more centipedes. A good place to start.
She takes a step forward, then catches sight of the Overseer still lingering nearby. She stares at it for a moment, almost incredulous. She doubts Five Pebbles would order it to stay after her warning; if not out of care for the creatures, then at least because repairing or replacing damaged resources seems to be beyond his abilities. Is it lingering of its own volition...? That's not something she has time to sort out right now.
"Keep your distance, little one. I won't be able to mind your safety for you."
With that, she takes off. She winds as efficient a path as she can manage, running over whatever flat terrain she can, leaping nimbly over the debris blocking her way, and weaving in and out of cover as she draws closer to her target. Occasional glances at the rest of its pack show her that they're largely interested in their own hunts, though it seems that one of them has found something interesting enough to draw the attention of several of its kin. Something else for her to keep in mind.
She's almost upon her prey when it finally reels back from the crevice, clacking its empty beak in what Hornet reads as frustration. In an instant it's fixed its gaze on Hornet, and only a moment later it lunges-slash-stumbles forward. Hornet hurls her needle, silk thread trailing from the handle, at the massive bug. When the needle crunches into its shell where its neck meets its body she yanks on the trailing silk, hurling herself forward in turn. She could try to fight it from a distance, but now that it's seen her she suspects it's better to get inside its range, where it might struggle to twist around and bite her.
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(He supposes he can't fault this particular Overseer for being interested; she's likely the newest thing they've seen in some time.)
The beaked bug does not expect such vicious resistance; sharp pain confuses it enough that it stumbles sideways at the sudden impact of Hornet's weapon. As she's assumed, it does try to bite her - but since she's far smaller and at an awkward angle, the sharp and frustrated snap-snap-snap of its beak closes on nothing but empty air. As it thrashes and screeches, it distracts some of the others, including the group gathered around a half-buried tangle of metal pipes.
As soon as their attention is drawn, something white and sleek pops free, darting across the exposed ground and running for its life. It looks rather like the small creature Hornet had seen when she first arrived here, in fact.
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(She does, in fact, see that familiar little bug spring free of its hiding spot, and immediately resolves to ask after it once this situation has been handled.)
Hornet inches her way further up her flailing prey's neck; its violent thrashing makes her next step even more complicated, but now it's even more difficult for it to twist around and bite her. She fishes one of the volt vessels from her tool pouch, the spear immediately crackling to life in her hands. She keeps an eye on the approaching bugs, swiveling her head as needed to track their approach. She lets them draw closer than is perhaps wise, but right up until the very last moment there's no sign of urgency in her movements are body language. And at that very last moment?
She hurls the volt vessels at the ground. The tip drives into the ground and electricity crackles between the orbs adorning the stake. A moment later there's a brilliant flash and then a column of violet lightning crashes down atop the vessels. The light is so dazzling even Hornet turns her head to avoid looking directly at it. If these beasts are as sensitive to light as Five Pebbles made them seem, the lightning strike should be more than enough to disorient them.
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Interesting. He shuffles the thought and its branching thoughts into its own category. It's been so long since he's needed or had particularly new thoughts, so they're worth examining on their own.
A great cacophony of screeching and clacking and thumping ensues as soon as the volt vessel explodes, the entire flock of beasts reduced from competent, stalking predators to being frozen in place by their own reflexes. Their large eyes flash rapidly as they roll back, the sound of snipping beaks and raucous calls suddenly silenced, and the one Hornet is currently dealing with goes limp.
There is the sound of rapid tapping, metal on metal; the little bug from before hasn't fled entirely, it seems. It beckons to her from the relatively safety of an overhang too small for the scissor-beaked bugs to wedge into, apparently feeling the need to repay her help in rescuing it before.
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The tapping of metal on metal has her whirling around, ready for another opponent, but it's only that little bug from before, beckoning her to safety. She hesitates for a bare moment. Part of her—the Weaver part, the part that spent her earliest years in Deepnest—wants to press on with the hunt. Her prey is stunned and vulnerable. Even setting aside the satisfaction of a successful hunt, killing them now will make the rest of her journey much easier.
But she doesn't need to kill them, does she? And there are advantages to leaving them alive. By stepping back and observing she could gain all manner of information: how long they'll remain stunned, if they'll attempt to resume their hunt or flee once they've recovered, if they show any fear of the spent volt vessel once they've regained their senses. And then there's the larger flying bugs to consider...
Ultimately, it only takes a moment for a cooler line of thinking of prevail. She yanks her needle out of the beaked bug and turns, casting her gaze towards where she last saw the Overseer.
"Little scout, we can find safety this way."
Then she turns and leaps from her slain prey, dashing towards the overhang. She slows as she draws near, ever wary of traps or tricks. She's already observed that the little creature is clever, and while it might look soft it wouldn't be the first soft-but-vicious thing she's met in her travels. But when no attack comes she slips into its hiding place alongside it, pressing herself deep into the shadows of the overhang.
"My thanks, small one. I'm glad to see you escaped with your shell intact."
Can this thing even understand her? She has no idea, but it's better to not be rude to the little creature.
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It doesn't seem to comprehend her words, but there's a sense of watchfulness to it all the same. It does wave its claws around a little, as if responding to the sound of her voice. It peers around her as the clacking starts up again, shivering somewhat, but by the frustrated snipping and squawking the creatures are making, stunning them had disoriented them entirely, causing them to lose track of their prey.
So they can communicate, Pebbles muses as the Overseer pops up again in their temporary shelter. It's not a changed one, like the other of its kind I was sent, so they must have some true capability for thought.
Speaking of shelter...he brings up his records of Eight Spools' precipitation patterns. If her systems follow their pattern - and there is no reason that they should not - another downpour will be arriving quite soon. The handful of other Overseers exploring the area report their findings at his command - he dismisses most of it as useless, but an older shelter and outpost, not yet eroded by time, is not far from Hornet's current position.
Her only barrier is a crumbling, precarious bridge across what was once a large, deep canal - more of a ravine now as the constant cycle of rain eroded its edges - but she seems capable enough. He sends an instruction to that overly curious Overseer, and it begins flashing the symbol for shelter and an arrow to point her in the right direction.
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Young is the first assumption that comes to Hornet's mind, though she hasn't committed to it just yet. It definitely looks different from the one she saw her first night here. That one had seemed to have fur, though she hadn't gotten close enough to confirm it, and she doesn't recall seeing any frills on it. Young is still a possibility, of course, but perhaps it's just a slightly different species—or even simply of a different bloodline. Or perhaps it's actually older. She has no way of being sure unless it can speak.
And it doesn't seem that it can. It clearly recognizes that she's communicating with it, but it's too soon to say if it actually understands her. It makes her think if the developing minds of young fleas, though this little creature is certainly a bit less... exuberant? Reckless? Than the many juvenile fleas she saw back to Mooshka's caravan. It may be clever, yes, but cleverness and intelligence are two different things. She'll have to observe a while longer to see how much of the latter is possesses.
But it seems such an opportunity may come sooner than later. The symbol for shelter is perfectly familiar to Hornet by now. Even seeing it out of the corner of her eye is enough to pull her attention to the Overseer. She turns her gaze to the sky, noting that it does seem as though the clouds are starting to grow heavy with impending rain. A shame; she hates to leave the slain bug's corpse to rot, especially knowing that she might be able to extract valuable resources from it with a bit of effort, but she hates the idea of drowning more.
"I'll be seeking shelter from the rain," she explains, turning to regard the little frilled bug once more. "You may join me, if you wish, but we must move swiftly."
And true to her word, Hornet steps away from the overhang and out into the open once more. She's observed that most bugs native to this region make themselves scarce as the rain approaches, but she keeps a wary eye out all the same. Those roach-like creatures are never far, and they're surprisingly stealthy despite their vividly colored heads.
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As Hornet follows the Overseer's direction, so too does this other creature follow Hornet; there's the soft clack of rock against rock as it picks up a stone for, apparently, safety's sake. It scrambles to keep up with her, but keep up it does, even over the falling-apart bridge.
Unlike many of the sealed shelters that still exist in this crumbling place, this one is far larger; a proper building, rather than a cramped chamber, with a wide, tall set of sealing doors. Seemingly, it owes its preservation to being in the shadow of larger structures, and thus being somewhat shielded from the slow erosion of harsh weather.
There are murals on the stone walls, painstakingly illustrated by some long-gone artisan; their colours have an almost eerie cast in the pale light of the blue and white plants that have sprouted and grown in the inside of this shelter. The scattered, shattered remnants of what might have been furnishings and left-behind belongings are proof enough that anything of the original inhabitants was either destroyed or picked over long ago, but the moss and grass creeping over parts of the shelter promise a vaguely comfortable rest, at least.
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Descending into the shelter and finding it a proper shelter, rather than just a watertight box in the ground, is a welcome relief. She'd been concerned that it might be a tight fit between herself and her new companion, but they'll both have room to rest. Hornet herself will even have room to work! She can actually do something productive during the downpour, rather than having to wait until it passes just to waste precious moments that could be spent traveling.
While these thoughts are all in the back of her mind it is, unsurprisingly, the murals that truly capture her attention. She'd seen ones very much like these just before she'd met Five Pebbles. They were one of many subjects she'd declined to ask about in favor of matters she'd considered more important, but now she wishes she had. For them to be at the top of Five Pebbles's superstructure was one thing. For such carefully rendered copies to also be here speaks to something that may have once held much cultural significance.
"Little scout, are you still there?"
The Overseers always seem to disappear when the rains draw near, but just as equally never seem to be far.
"I'd like to ask Five Pebbles a question, if your messages can still reach him in the rain."
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Overseers generally do not enter shelters; they do monitor what comes out, but it's rare for them to follow something in. This one, however, has; when Hornet calls for it, it wriggles out of a duct in the wall.
It blinks several times, then projects a image of Five Pebbles in his chamber briefly. It seems like it's not reacting negatively, so it should be fine to ask a question.
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"I saw murals similar to these—nearly identical, in fact—in the chambers near the top of your structure. I'm wondered if they were simply art, or if they held some greater significance to the people of this land."
She and Five Pebbles can't speak directly, but Hornet has grown familiar with the Overseer and its method of communication. There's still plenty that's lost in translation, but she's confident she can get something out of this conversation. In fact, now that she has the murals in front of her again, she realizes that the symbol the Overseer uses to signal nearby predators looks like a combination of two of the symbols in the murals. Maybe she can start to learn the local language in earnest.
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He sends a sequence of images in response to her question; the first mural with one bug killing another, then two of the colourful roaches fighting. The symbol the Overseer uses for danger is flashed at her several times.
The second mural, then two large centipedes locked in what seems to be some kind of mating embrace.
The third mural, then two scavengers leaning against each other companionably, clearly walking somewhere.
The fourth mural, then a winged creature feasting on the body of a hard-headed roach. The Overseer flashes a symbol it's used before, to indicate something that's edible; then the symbol it uses for danger.
The fifth mural, then a sequence of images; scavengers searching for something, a red and scarred bug much like the one Hornet is sheltering with reaching for a blue 'fruit', various pictures of the native fauna in the business of living their lives.
He taps his claw against his cheek thoughtfully - how to associate this with the terms they'd talked of before, without proper speech? - and then begins to draw up a diagram of his own. Nothing more is sent for a few moments, and then finally, the Overseer displays a circle with the five symbols on the mural and five more, evenly spaced around it in some kind of order. The last and final symbol at the top, highlighted in gold, is a circle with a cross through it; the others are duller.