For months now Bacteria 31088 had been drifting along inside it's capsule. Floating across the seas towards an unknown, unplaned destination. When it came time to feed, the virus forced it's host to open the hatches, feeding on any hapless marine life that happened to pass by.

The virus could wait, sitting inside it's host and just waiting until it found some form of civilisation. Where there was civilisation, there was prey...

During a long rest, Bacteria 31088 was awoken by a quaking crash throughout the capsule. Panic coursed through the veins of the host. Had the capsule sunk? Was there now no chance of finding new victims? Frantically it searched for the hatch and opened it, letting in the pouring light and the sounds of Shokushu beach.

The host stumbled out on it's slender legs, crashing onto the sand. 31088 forced the being to press its toes into the sand, to feel solid grand beneath it's feet for the first time in 8000 years. The virus listened. It could hear the sounds of conversation far off, of moving bodies. There was prey on this land.

Hungrily, 31088 eyed the woods that opened up onto this isolated bit of beach, sensing something coming closer...

((If another student wanted in on this, by all means go ahead. I made sure Saira didn't interfere with any other possible scenes yet for that reason!))

Something coming closer. Something... walking? Whatever it was, it was totally preoccupied with another task, and didn't even notice the capsule that had run aground. It... no, she was... writing? No. Drawing.

Saira was moving across the land quickly, with an island map she had found amidst the documents from the abandoned offices. She knew that coming out here was risky - and that until she could meet with 'safe' people more often, she couldn't do it together - but Saira had to do this. After the tunnel encounter, the Egyptian knew that it was important to take the "fight" to the monsters' most important advantage.

That advantage was absolute control of situation. And the commodity that secured that control? Knowledge. Without knowing all the secret passageways, suspicious landforms, and nooks of the island, Saira would never be safe, the other girls would never have a chance. Even then the monsters would probably find a way, but... but... She had to try!

Her traditional exploring gear felt natural at this moment, now almost a badge of honor in the war against the beasts (as it were, since she had worn it during a few attacks...), with its long beige coat, and the vibrant - this time green - blouse underneath, the skirt matching her coat, high boots, and glasses. So, too, was the lightness of her steps through the forest, so far unaware of the beach nearby, and anyone else who may have found it a good place to relax...

...Or hunt.

31088 could smell somehting getting closer. A victim. A chance for it to spread itself to another host, to complete its mission.

The virus knew that, until it had learned everything it could about the residents of this world, it would have to rely on the element of surprise. It would be far more likely to bring down it's prey if it could find someway of sneaking up on them. What 31088 needed was a distraction.

Stepping inside the capsule that had been home for the past 8 millenia, 31088 took the console and told it to set off an alarm, just loud enough so that whatever was skulking around nearby would come to investigate, and while it was looking at the capsule, it wouldn't be noticing the host.

31088 left the capsule, just as the blaring siren of the alarm began. Calmly, slowly, the host body slunk behind a rock far enough away from the spacecraft, watching the treeline, waiting.

(Is there room for another student?)

((I don't mind! Just need to wait for Mercy's opinion - I'll hold off on posting IC so you can scene-in, just in case.))

(Always room for one more. Jump right in )

(Thank you both )

Bala, needing some alone time, was taking a walk away from the group at the beach. She had already gone for a swim and her hair was wet and hanging loose. She could not have been dressed more differently than the Egyptian girl. She wore her orange floral string bikini and water shoes, with her "RINA" necklace as her only jewelry. When she heard the alarm, Bala ran to the sound.

As Bala neared the source of the alarm, she wrongly assumed that the other girls in her group had also heard the siren. The girl who was running inland out of sight with urgency wasn't running to get help. She was running to retrieve some trinket playfully swiped by another girl. Rounding a bend in the shore, Bala stopped as she saw the strange object on the beach. She had never seen such a thing before. It looked foreign, alien. She resumed running, unsure what she'd find when she reached the thing.

Having heard the really loud siren, Saira definitely felt cause for alarm. That kind of random, unexpected thing?... Usually was never a good sign. Quickly putting away her notebook in the backpack she was wearing, Saira rushed out to pursue the noise, knowing that there was at least some element of danger. But then she saw another girl, too! ...Similarly dark skintone, so immediately she knew she hadn't met this one - all the ones she saw were some flavor of asiatic or caucasian. A yell came out of Saira's lips, trying to go over the siren.

"Hey! You, running over to that thing! Watch out, it could be dangerous!"

Assuming she managed to get closer to the other girl, Saira would pause, maybe holding her knees briefly to get a breath from the sprint, before flexing back up. Her words would be stern, but also somewhat worried.

"Look, let's check it out together, okay? I don't know who you are, but I do know that the unexplained around here just leads to trouble. You got that?"

Of course, Saira's attention was mostly on Bala, and the shuttle... So the viral host's stealth wasn't compromised, even if Saira was taking the naturally paranoid steps...

31088 wandered in a wide arc through the trees, making sure that neither of these two life forms would see it as it closed in on them.

Its host sniffed the air, trying to pick up any information about the beings that it could. Very faint, it would have to figure things out when it finally got a glimpse of them. The host body quivered with anticipation, a chance to spread the infection, the virus's entire reason to be, was within its grasp.

Silently, it waited for the creatures to approach its shuttle. Then, and only then would it make its strike.

Bala makes good time torwards the object when she sees the other girl, whose skin tone was similar to Bala's. She probably wasn't Desi, but she could be. She was shouting something and motioning at the thing. The siren was drowing out what she was saying. "<>ING! <> OUT <> DANE<>" She seemed quite upset.

Bala altered her course to head over to the girl. Maybe she knew what it was. As they met, the girl bent over to catch her breath. She must have run farther than Bala had. She wasn't Desi. She looked Arab, maybe Egyptian or Libyan.

"Look, let's check it out together, okay? I don't know who you are, but I do know that the unexplained around here just leads to trouble. You got that?"

Ok, she doesn't know what it is either. And she's very agitated. Well, we can find out together. Bala folds her hands in front of her so her fingertips and thumbtips meet, forming a loose triangle. "Hi, I'm Bala", she says. Putting her hands down she says, "if you think we should, we can check it out together. Are you ok?"

Between this new girl and the capsule, Bala wasn't watching out for any trouble. She also was unaware of the host's presence.

As she began to fully regain her composure, pushing up her glasses, Saira nodded to Bala. She still seemed... ill-at-ease, but at least tried to sound friendly.

"Ah. I'm Saira. I... It's just a long run from the woods over at beach's edge."

She waved out a hand as if to point, gesturing at the vaguely-tropical forest near the beach that Bala was dressed for. The Egyptian girl continued, though with an almost ominous tone.

"Keep wary, I can't stress enough that at any time, something bad could happen. Okay, let's see now..."

Stalk, stalk. With long booted steps, Saira began softly and quietly moving towards the crashed capsule, as if she were hunting someone, or maybe making like a thief in the night. Which... she was once... And so she was familiar with what needed to be done to remain silent. Violet eyes raced over the metal hull, trying to identify anything that might do something, or indicate something.

But the host, she was still unseen...

The capsule's siren blared louder than ever as the girls approached. Inside, something was clearly whirring in circles, a dark piece of machinery, turning rapidly. 31088 knew they would be distracted long enough by this mystery, trying to figure out just what this shuttle was.

Silently, the host left the confines of the trees. It began to walk the sands toward the girls, as quiet as it could. It was only a few feet away. The prey were so close to being in it's grasp...

Bala smiled at Saira's introduction and nodded at her explanation. Saira's ominous warning came as a shock to Bala. The girl was deadly serious. Bala agreed to be vigilant.

As they walked towards the capsule, Bala was struck by the absurdity of what they were doing. Saira looked like a skirt wearing gumshoe or spy, tiptoeing towards the capsule. Bala had to look ridiculous, doing the same in a bikini. She unsuccessfully tried to suppress a giggle. When Saira looked at her, Bala converted the giggle into a cough. "Sorry", Bala said. And they continued to the capsule.

When they reached the capsule, Bala spied the whirring machinery. After a quizzical look at Saira, Bala returned her attention to the odd thing. She couldn't tell if it had something to do with the alarm or not. She couldn't see any connections to the machine. It was quite the puzzle.

Saira indeed began to focus on the whirring machine, striding close to it, trying to examine it. She wasn't much of an engineer, though, so she didn't really know WHAT it could possibly be... Though the laughter from Bala distracted her for a minute, and she almost turned back with a somewhat snappish look, but...

...Saira's face softened a little.

"Ah. Heh. I must look really silly... I... don't know what this is, and I think it's still a good idea to be alert."

A little voice inside her head told her she was doing something stupid again, rushing in without the slightest care as to what was happening or why. But... This time she listened. It almost looked like Saira's ears twitched, so subtle were her movements, as she mumbled something under her breath. Was it instinct? Was it dumb luck?

"...I've got a bad feeling about this..."

31088 realised that now was the time to act.

With a great deal of care, it forced its hosts body to morph. It draw on its reserves of energy to make drastic changes in its shell, the skin around the shoulders stretching out and moving. 31088 had caused tentacles to grow from its hosts spine, only small things, not designed for attack, but strong enough to restrain prey.

The tentacles wormed their way across the sand toward its goal. Quietly they looped themselves around the feet of the two girls, but did not yet snap closed. 31088 waited until the perfect moment.

The host body cleared it's throat to get the girls attention, a hand on one of its tremendous breasts. The tentacles tightened, snapping closed like snares around the girls ankles, immobilising them.