((And now for the "official" version to commence...))

[prankster_femme]

((This takes place as roughly the same time as this arc*Wingblade fumbles as she inputs the access code Steadfast gave her. She's shaking and the air is hitching in her cycling systems, though she's physically undamaged. Once the door slides open she throws herself in and onto the berth, then opens a comm to Steadfast, her voice breaking

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[0ut_of_sight]

((Continued from the above sub-thread.))

Elsewhere, the elevator reaches the floor level and Echoshift steps off the platform. He makes his way towards Steadfast's quarters, taking a route that allows him to stop by his own quarters along the way. As agreed, he fishes out a couple of energon cubes from a stash stored in a unit at the far side of the room, pocketing them into subspace. He's about to close the storage unit, but changes his mind and helps himself to a few more as spares while he's at it before leaving the room. The door hisses shut behind him and locks.

A short while later he's standing outside the door to Steadfast's quarters. He taps a few times on the door.

"Hey, it's me," he announces without preamble, keeping that same tone he'd used earlier and wondering what he'll see on the the other side when the door slides out of the way. "Can I come in?"

[lavender_wings]

Steadfast gives Wingblade a light reassuring pat before opening the door from the inside. "Come on in!" she tells Echoshift in the most friendly tone she can muster, though on close listening, there's still some of that lack of cheer in there.

[0ut_of_sight]

Echoshift steps in as invited and throws a glance around the room, taking in the expressions and demeanors of everyone present. He tries not to make it too obvious as he steals a careful look at Steadfast, trying to work out how much of the impression she was trying to give was false cheer. Sometimes, the more someone tried to forcibly hide how they felt on the inside, the more obvious it became that they were only pretending.

"Hi, Kiddo." He reaches over to give Wingblade a brief pat, then looks up and nods in greeting at each of the other three faces in turn. "Hey, everyone. Someone said they needed a drink?" He picks an energon cube out of subspace with a flick of one wrist and tosses it once in the air.

[strataseeker]

Strata grins and reaches out, snatching the cube from the air.

"You make a nice bartender," she chuckles cheerfully, balancing the cube on her fingertip for a second before handing it to Wingblade.

// Thanks, Shifter. We appreciate it. //

[prankster_femme]

*Wingblade nods as Shifter pats her, then returns her helm to Photon's shoulder.* Thank you, *she murmurs when Strata gives her the cube of energon, then begins to drink it.*

[skitterfluff]

After sliding through the ducts back up to the main levels, the skitterfluff peers through the ventilation grill into the command center, a dead rat gripped carefully in his jaws. His ears swivel attentively, catching all manner of stray noises--except the ones he's listening for. The duty officer is not on the bridge.

Squirmy turns and works his way back on silent lizard-toes down the ducts to the quarters deck, then across. He passes the maintenance access he used to chase the rat earlier and reaches a certain grill--

Lots of Solids in the room, including the duty officer robot. Not so much noise this time--alarm over? Too many. Risky, risky. ... should be brought to the duty officer's attention at onceEars and tail flick forward as the skitterfluff stealthily opens the grill. He creeps down the wall behind Steadfast, freezing whenever someone looks in his direction. Then he's low enough to jump off the wall, land on Steadfast's air intake with the front pair and back pair of feet, leap from there to the top of Wingblade's left

[0ut_of_sight]

"Pfft. Really, Strata, is that all I am to the rest of you?" he answers, returning her banter and grinning

[lavender_wings]

Being jumped on - in the most literal sense - has Steadfast tense like a spring, only to relax when she notices that what jumped on her happens to be no other than the Yellow Creature. A smile more genuine than even what the other Seekers' banter could elicit from her appears on her face. It's a smile born from startlement more than anything else, but it's there.

The sight of the wrongly-shaped rat...thing elicits disgust, though no immediate fear, given that the creature is dead.

Steadfast gazes at Echoshift in a wordless question as to what's going on, and back at the Yellow Creature. She's moving very carefully, slowly, and keeping her arms at her sides with her palms open in an obvious 'I mean you no harm' gesture, in order to not spook the Yellow Creature. She's hoping the curious critter will stick around for longer this time, allowing her to get a closer look.

[prankster_femme]

*Wingblade blinks as she's used for a springing platform, then looks curiously at the yellow creature* ...What's that? *She shifts, trying to get a closer look at the thing, only noting in passing the dead thing it had brought with it.*

[skitterfluff]

Squirmy pushes the dead rat with his nose closer to Echoshift. "Niik!"

Then he jumps--bounce, bounce--from knee to knee until he arrives at the room's console. Ears tilt attentively forward as the skitterfluff looks at Echoshift and coils himself over the display.

"Neek?"

[strataseeker]

The sudden appearance of the skitterfluff catches both twins off guard for the instant it takes them to process the small, organic nature of the "intruder".

As Strata relaxes and takes in the sight of the "rat", she echoes Shifter's sentiment with a somewhat disgusted wrinkling of her features and a softly muttered, "Umm.. ick."

Photon, however, kneels beside the tiny carcass as soon as Squirmy bounces away, probing at the obviously mutated remains with the experienced and curious optic of a scientist.

"Hmm... Cursory evaluation indicates mutation from indigenous earth stock. May I take this for detailed examination?" she asks as she files away her initial observations.

[0ut_of_sight]

"Sure," he replies to Photon, somewhat relieved that someone else was able to look it over better than he could. Besides, it was an excuse to not have to touch that thing. "Be my guest."

Echoshift watches Squirmy coil up on the computer console and look expectantly at him. Having no idea what else that could mean, he steps carefully around the small, mutated corpse on the floor of Steadfast's room, and heads over to the console.

[skitterfluff]

Squirmy's ears flick toward Photon as she examines the rat. "Neek."

The yellow-furred hunter turns his head toward Echoshift and blinks several times. One gecko-toed paw reaches down and pats the display.

[prankster_femme]

*Wingblade slowly stands up, her optics locked on Squirmy. She moves over until she's next to Strata and tugs on her sister's arm to get her attention* Is that the yellow thing you mentioned earlier? What is it?

[strataseeker]

Photon absently nods her thanks to Shifter as she carefully picks the deformed rat, stretching it out across one palm as she peers at it. Noting the skitterfluff's behavior, she rises to join Echoshift at the display, keeping the rat out of his direct optic-sight for his sensibilities.

Strata watches this all with a faint smile of amusement for her twin; puzzle-mode Photon engaged, t-minus Escape-From-The-Rest-Of-Reality in five, four, three..

Strata gives Wingblade a quick, one-armed hug. "Yeah, that's the yellow thing we mentioned earlier. Shifter said that it's supposed to be here. Maybe when it's done showing him what it wants to show him, he can explain?" she replies quietly, still watching the others curiously.

[lavender_wings]

It doesn't escape Steadfast's notice that Wingblade's eager curiousity is coming to the fore again, and the elder Seeker is ever so glad for it. Moving close, she gives Wingblade a light pat and says, "Yes, Echoshift can explain."

As with Wingblade, Steadfast's curiousity can't be kept down. The Yellow Creature's behaviour is remarkable - it does appear to want to point something out. Which, in turn, would mean it's able to understand what the display is good for. Steadfast's best guess is that the Yellow Creature is distinctly intelligent for an animal, as well as - trained and used to working with whoever used to be its handlers.