<> (That sucks.) * Amadeus looks around and lets out a long breath. "How are you feeling?" he asks Hestia. * Hestia shuts her eyes and puts her fingers to her temples, taking a deep breath before opening them. "Better than anyone trying to eat one of those damn things raw, I can tell you that." Call it a gut feeling. * Amadeus nods with a wince, then goes about circling the area, checking on Hestia once in a while to make sure she doesn't collapse or start seeing things. <> * Hestia maybe walks a little slower and cringes at any exceptionally loud noises, but isn't on the verge of collapse. "All I know is, don't take any weird bets from biologists. You included, I'm sure." She glances up at the clouds, and around at the 'scaled' plants. "So why is it strange that there's no large predators here, anyway?" Well, a natural ecosystem, and this looks like one, would develop carnivores to keep the herbivores in check. If there are herbivores, there ought to be bigger carnivores - by which I mean carnivores capable of taking out those herbivores and keeping them in check. * Hestia hmmms, and actively pulls her hand back from a plant, as the idea comes to her: "Killer plants, maybe? Big enough to eat the large herbivores?" As we've just seen, not even big flaming danger signs are enough to keep big, stupid animals from trying to eat something. * Amadeus considers that. "Possibly." He warms up to the idea. "Carnivorous plants exist on Earth, so that's hardly unheard of. Or, yes, poisonous plants." <> * Hestia nods. "Gold star for me. Unless I'm wrong, which is just as likely... ah well." She stretches her arms over her head and instantly regrets it, holding her forehead with one hand again for a moment afterwards. "I did come out here to do some... adventurous sightseeing, but I was looking for more nifty ancient ruins than aggro blood-sucking plants, I suppose." The arrival of the animal gets her attention, however. <> (Is it basically common knowledge that the sleythin are the way they are because Sleythin has, like, 2-3G compared to Earth's 1?) (Yup.) * Amadeus watches the thing come and go, blinking a couple of times as it does so, then turns his attention to Tia and smiles. If we're lucky, we'll be able to find all of that and then some. Chances are most of our jumps will just be hitting a new planet, finding no life, and running a few tests, though. * Hestia glances at the sky for a second, then back toward camp. "Well, a little mind-numbing drudgery just sharpens your appreciation when you're in the thick of the good stuff." * Zeke (Mechalink@ip68-13-21-94.om.om.cox.net) has joined #forestmoonofendor (Blah blah that's no moon it's a forest.) (You can desc your own entry, Zeke.) * Zeke tromps out of the bar, birdsect on his shoulder as always. It and he both scan their heads around for Amadeus and Hestia. * Amadeus grins. "That's what I figure." He looks to Zeke. "You survived." * Hestia follows Amadeus' gaze and raises an eyebrow at Robocop v2.0. "Well, that's one." * Zeke looks between them, and then says, "He said we succeeded." Good for him. How was the bug? <<... Okay, everyone back into the other channel soon.>> * Zeke looks back at Amadeus for a moment, then says, "I do not know. But he does not have to know." * Hestia tilts her head for a moment, then suddenly smirks and gives a little laugh. "Clever." <>