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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2019 0:28:26 GMT -6
Suddenly, the caterpillar that had been wrapped around the nest violently curled up, and then fell to the ground in a coiled circle, looking more like a foul centipede than an actual caterpillar. Morgan stared down at it, and then looked around, wondering where the cicada-thing had gone. Morgan could see it half-flying away, certainly not well, but not quite dead. The caterpillar was toast though. Morgan bent low to examine it, and then stood up and looked at the nest again, blinking. Well, that didn't do much to the nest, but it did scare off the cicada and kill the caterpillar. That was a good sign, Morgan took it. Morgan raised up again with the gun, and pulled the trigger gently to spray the nest again. That was when the nest made some kind of a noise; a bumbling noise, and then spilled open, revealing some nearly candy-smelling and candy-looking goo of some kind, dripping like sparkly blood and gore. [16]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2019 0:31:26 GMT -6
Morgan reacted faster than a human ever could, their small build helping with their reaction time a bit, throwing them out of the way like a ground-bound mosca instead of a bipedial person, landing particularly gracefully on all-fours a few feet away. Not a drop of the candy goo had fallen on Morgan's pristine lab-coat, the lab-coat was suddenly unbearably hot though, forcing the human to sweat in the morning light. The nest was dripping a sweet-smelling mixture of stinking goo, like sweet tea that had been left out too long, and it was mixed with what looked like bug larva. Huh, that was good, right? Morgan could see something begin to roll out of the nest, screaming wildly. Morgan was curious, and a bit too confident for their own good. The thing fell out of the nest and onto the ground; some kind of huge purple caterpillar. Morgan took a single step back after rising to their feet. [17]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2019 0:35:04 GMT -6
The purple caterpillar was most likely the dam of the group, or that was what Morgan told themself, anyway. A natural creature, that was probably producing some neo-nate queens, the caterpillars, and some winged cicada-like drones. That made sense, plenty of bugs tended to have sexual dimorphism, differences between the genders that allowed for some sort of social or otherwise important structural differences to shine through. So where each of those caterpillars from before a neo-nate queen, ready to make their own garden-eating hoard of offspring? Morgan shivered a bit, but it was more out of excitement than anxiety. Morgan stepped forward again, raised the bug-spray gun at the purple caterpillar as it rose up too; and then sprayed it down thoroughly. The purple caterpillar fell to the earth and withered, curling up deeply like the smaller blue caterpillars had done before it. The nest suddenly looked less like candy and more like mud and paper. Perhaps the queen had some kind of... power? It was dead now. [18]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2019 0:38:11 GMT -6
Morgan figured that the rest of the bugs would be a snap; unless they somehow made some kind of a resurgence, that was always possible, the bespectacled human figured. Morgan was in no way infallible, but they hoped that this was over. Morgan had no idea what they were thinking, coming in to such a hot and sticky garden during the late spring to get rid of someone else's bug problem. Ugh, why, right? Morgan shook their head, turned heel, and began moving through the garden back towards the front. Morgan was killing any bugs that they came across, now, spraying some with bug spray, and stomping others the entire way through. Morgan vaguely wondered if this was really worth their time, or if anyone else had tried to take up this quest? Surely not, since it was still covered in bugs... Then again, there were probably gardens all over the Labs that were infested, since these terrible things seemed fertile enough. And natural. [19]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 27, 2019 0:41:04 GMT -6
The way up to the front gate seemed longer than Morgan had remembered, perhaps because they disliked being sweaty and it was a bit humid in gardens, or perhaps because they were being careful to eliminate any semblance of the pestilence that they could find. It didn't take long for them to run out of bugspray, but the bugs were getting more and more scarce. That was certainly a good sign; but they could always make a resurgence. Perhaps there had even been two nests? The human could never be too sure. Morgan put the rest of the bug-spray gun in their deep lab-coat pocket, knowing that they really didn't need it now, but not quite wanting to get rid of the mechanism. They wanted to take it apart later, for the parts and to perfect it. Yes, that was a good idea. Morgan made their way to the front of the garden, and looked back over it, trying to search for any still-living bugs... [20]
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Post by Jack on Apr 28, 2019 15:20:10 GMT -6
Success! You have eradicated the infestation! Feel free to continue playing if you would like, but your prize will be sent to you shortly!
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