From the Eastern Country

[blueeyedmother]

[OOC: When replying, please include the time of day.. morning, noon, evening, night.. that your character is coming. It will effect the outcome.]

It's hard to say when it happened, overnight or in the wee-hours of the morning, but at some point a portion of the plaza was hung in webbing that strung like spun glass across the facades and alleys. Small beads of crystalline material hung from the webbing like drops of dew on the workings of a spider at sunrise. As the breeze touched the layers of webbing the glass tinkled like chimes but there's an undertone of wailing and human cries in the sound. It's a ghostly sound of unknown origin.

However, on closer inspection of the web one could find skeletons hung, barren bones held in their natural position by more glass webbing. It almost looks like a crypt shrine for the dead in some church under tunnels, though these appear to be only the bones of large mammals instead of humans. The scene under sun or light throws shadows and reflections across the plaza. The glittering like light through a sun catcher dazzling a million colors across the ground and buildings across the street.

The approach of a person is what starts the whispering. "Where has mother gone?" repeated over and over in hundreds of voices from within the webbing. Slowly, tentatively, spiderlings come out the size of a human hand and shaped like orb weaving spiders. However, they are nearly transparent and as they move mirrored sections appear and disappear on the surface of their bodies.

"Where has mother gone?" They ask again in a chorus of eerie voices that are accompanied by human like blue eyes staring expectantly, with hope, at whomever is listening.

Comments

[chiaro_oscuro]

Ben Solo occasionally wanders the Plaza in the morning, and quickly notices the eerie webs on this particular visit. He knows what spiders are, but whatever made these was no ordinary spider. The webs make a strange sound in the wind, there are skeletons of various animals hanging in them, and are bigger and thicker than any cobweb.

The skeletons are the most unsettling part. Ben's not in the mood to be anybody's breakfast, least of all a spider's. Still, none of the bones are human, so he hopes that any thoughts of fighting will be unnecessary. They hopefully are intelligent enough to tell sentient creatures apart from food. Besides, he doesn't know if the bones strung in the web were from prey that was captured and sucked dry or just happened to be there by coincidence.

The creatures asking for their mother is strange, on the other hand, but at least it's not a threat. The spiderlings aren't moving to attack. But if these are only baby spiders, the mother must be much bigger - and, he realizes with a nervous glance, that might be where the skeletons came from. Part of the natural cycle, and it's really no different from him hunting in the Wilds or tucking into a meal at a Nexus restaurant, but the jumpiness comes with being in a predator's territory.

"Your mother isn't here." He consciously holds still, despite caution and distrust. Not going to start something when there's no need. Best to talk first, and the spiders are clearly intelligent enough to use human speech. "But you'll be safe here, I think."

[blueeyedmother]

This person brings the spiderlings out farther than most. They feel something on him, something comforting though it is merely a feeling. They're too young to understand, more like a human toddler than an adult. They are just as cautious as the human before them.

Hundreds of little blue eyes are staring at him with curiosity. Eventually some of the boldest come out and start looking for a way to get to him. His presence makes them want to touch him. If he's close enough little legs may reach out and try to touch him. "Have you seen mother?"

[chiaro_oscuro]

"No, I haven't...but I'm sure she can't be far." If they're intelligent spiders, they might work differently than the usual kind. He would be spooked by the hundreds of blue eyes, but now he's sure that the spiderlings aren't going to eat him. Being a babysitter for a group of baby spiders was not part of the plan today...but he wants to make sure these babies are taken care of.

"The Nexus will have a lot of what you need. There's things to hunt and water to drink out in the Wilds. I used to hunt there. It's not safe, exactly, but I could bring you something to help until your mother comes home. Food. Water." He gestures to his chest, introducing himself. "My name is Ben."

[blueeyedmother]

"Ben." His name ripples in a chorus of hundreds of little voices. "Ben brings water?" the question only comes from a couple of the bolder ones.

Then they fall silent and only the glass chiming sound and distant wailing on the breeze can be heard. Suddenly, they all turn their hopeful eyes to the human. "Name us. We have no names. Are we Ben? Ben brings water. What are our names?"

The sentences start blending together, weaving into a strangely musical tone that could be a little hypnotizing from the complexity of all the murmured speaking.

[chiaro_oscuro]

Ben nods confidently. "Yes, I can bring water to you, and some food, so you'll be all right until your mother comes back." They eat meat, judging from those bones, so he has an idea of what this kind of spider likes to eat. Bigger game than your average cobweb-weaver. "I'll catch a deer, and we can eat together."

He's hungry, too, though knowing what he does about how spiders eat he hopes sharing a meal with them won't cost him his appetite.

He's startled when the spiders ask him about names. "You don't have names? Your mother didn't give them to you yet?" Well, there are too many spiders for him to count, so naming them would almost certainly be a process.

[blueeyedmother]

"Please... Yes." and that yes rolls through the spiderlings. More and more of which are collecting at the edge of the web.

They all stop to stare at Ben when he starts talking about names. There's a lively chattering that occurs, too fast and quiet for a human probably. "You are mother now."

He was feeding them and going to stay. That made him a mother right.

[chiaro_oscuro]

"I'll be back - with food and water." It'll be a simple matter to go out and find some deer or other Wilds animal for them to eat. Food at the Cafe would do for him, but not the spiders. He'll need to hunt.

He means it, too. He can't stay with the spiders forever, but he'll make sure they're safe until their mother comes back.

And if she knows Ben protected and fed her children, he'd hopefully look like a friend and not prey.