004 - Bringing the First Taste of the Spring

[n0secondchances]

[Ten's gone walking through the castle today, curious to explore the building that's causing them all so much fuss. He doesn't make it very far, though, before he spots a single acorn sitting right in the middle of the lobby.

Funny... it wasn't quite the right season for acorns, was it?

Picking it up, he'll turn it over in his palm, when he notices

Comments

[cheerupemoborg]

[Eh. Hank's seen weirder!]

Drop something?

[n0secondchances]

Hmm? [glancing up from his position on the floor, completely nonplussed] No, not at all. But I might've found something.

[his gaze lingers though. Not surprised, but definitely curious. You aren't exactly the normal castle resident, are you?]

[cheerupemoborg]

[He's used to staring, but Hank can't help but feel like he's met this person before.]

Let me guess: small and black, right?

[n0secondchances]

[he doesn't stare very long. After all, he was hardly the first mix of man and machine that the Doctor had ever seen. He just happened to be the first here. The question immediately redirects his attention back to the couch] Yes indeed! A whole swarm of them. Rather shy little fellows, too.

[cheerupemoborg]

They must be the source of the ash, then.

[n0secondchances]

Very likely. Or... at least the medium that's spreading it. They seem to be coated in a layer of dry soot.

[or, rather, made of it. But he hasn't scanned them enough to figure that out and, unlike some people, he's got no desire to smoosh them]

[cheerupemoborg]

That or they are soot.

[Hank's gaze move to the couch, where it lingers for a second or two.]

They are not organic, that much is sure.

[n0secondchances]

They're carbon... I wouldn't be so quick to say they aren't organic.

However... [reaching under the couch, he'll manage to usher one into his palm] I suppose there's one way to find out.

[cheerupemoborg]

And here I thought they ran away if you got too close...

[n0secondchances]

They are rather shy, aren't they? [but now that he's got this one in his hand it doesn't seem to be trying to go anywhere. Yet.

With his free hand, he'll reach into his suit pocket and pull out his sonic screwdriver]

[cheerupemoborg]

Going to try and analyze them? Be careful, they can be fragile, remember?

[Hank knows. He tried already.

Then again, he was bit rougher]

[n0secondchances]

[scoffing] There's no try about it. It's nothing at all to analyze something such as these.

[the little creature shivers on his palm as he turns the screwdriver on, blue light coming from the end of the device. It puts up with this treatment for a few seconds...before promptly rolling off his hand, drifting towards the ground and, once it gets there, darting back into the welcoming shadows under the couch.]

Well, now! That is interesting.

[cheerupemoborg]

That's it's scared of blue lights?

[n0secondchances]

[a pointed look, before he goes back to peering under the couch] They do appear to be made entirely of soot. However, they're very much alive as well. Which certainly shouldn't be possible without some form of internal system to breathe or digest or feel or think or...well... anything, really. But there they are, all the same.

[cheerupemoborg]

You'd be surprised. I've encountered things that lack any kind of biology and yet are still alive.