Chapter Text
The main block to researching scavengers tends to be actually finding them. They’re rather reclusive. So when you do get the chance to observe some you tend to set aside everything. Not to imply you really have a lot of time to watch them, it’s hard to be stealthy when you’re 8 times their size and white. When they do inevitably notice you it’s still hard not to be crestfallen.
However, this time things are different. The pair of scavengers don't flee in terror or seek cover, instead they seem to beckon you. You certainly can’t turn down an offer like that. Cautiously, and trying to make yourself appear as as little of a threat as possible.
Closer now you can make out the strange garments the scavengers are wearing. Normally scavengers wear furs and woven cloth, but these ones wear what looks like a mix of painted metal and some opaque flexible material you can’t put a name to. On their faces they have masks that extend their faces with reflective flat planes that you can’t help but feel would be hard to see through. It looks kinda like glass, you didn’t know scavengers could make glass.
When you get close enough they begin moving in sync, both of them waving you forward towards a cave you didn’t spot before.
“You want me to go in there?”
They don’t stop walking, so you keep following.
The cave itself is cooler than outside, as you’d expect. Your mind is still spinning from the chance to be up close to scavengers. Now in the dark you can make out a light glow coming from behind the glass of their masks. You have no idea how that works.
Ahead of you, after a turn, there are another two scavengers standing around what looks like a statue of a flower with a large pistil. Instantly the more instinctual parts of your mind, honed by years of training and the war, kick into gear screaming about the obvious trap. You push it down. You can take 4 scavengers in a fight, and you’re pretty sure they don’t intend to try to hurt you.
Once you reach the end of the cave the two scavengers that guided you stop in lock-step. Again, in perfect synchronization they point towards the sculpture. You cautiously step forward and inspect it.
Metal wings extend out from the base on each side and the bottom making up what you’ve decided are ‘petals’ while the top has more of the darkened glass. In the center lies a pink bulbous stem that… well…
“Okay, why does that really look like a-”
“Host-body detected,” you’re interrupted, “Commencing Assimilation.”
With a click and a loud hiss of air the ‘flower’ launches at your face with more speed and force than you could’ve reacted to. It folds and wraps around your skull, the ‘wings’ latching and clicking around your horns. You try to shake off the apparatus as the screen lights up. Your mouth is forced open by the ‘stamen’ well, no, it’s a cock. Your mouth is forced open by the cock, your screams muffled by the soft material peeking into your throat.
Text moves across the visor faster than you can read it, past it you can barely make out the scavengers spring into action. They leap at you and begin crawling up your shoulders. In a panic you try to shake them off, but one of them manages to get up to your spines and holds firm. You keep shaking your head but the mask is stuck firm.
You decide to bail, rushing out of the cave. You crash into the wall once or twice, still getting used to the visor obscuring your vision. On the back of your neck you can feel the scavenger moving, then a click as a weight is wrapped around your neck.
The scavenger drops off right before you make it out and take to the sky.
Your breathing is labored, it takes just a little more effort to force air through the seals of the mask. Normally getting to this altitude wouldn’t wind you so much but with the mask and how quickly you did it? You’re feeling a little lightheaded.
There’s something playing in your ears, like words but you can’t make any of them out. You swear there’s something wrong with the air in the mask, it smells wrong. Sweet. The text scroll finishes and flashes up something new, it’s facing the wrong direction to read from your perspective. Still, you manage to parse it out:
Dronification: 2%