kenod

Karin sighed in agreement. "Yeah, quite a pity," she said in a deadpan tone, "especially since I'm the one who will have to tell the others in my department we found this thing and killed it." She walked over to the corpse, rummaging around in her backpack. "One sec," she said, "I'll get some tissue samples, that way I can at least avoid getting lynched when I return." Kneeling down she took a small device out of her pack, opening it up she dropped a small piece of meat into it and pressed a small button on the side to active it, the cooling systems preventing the tissue from decaying. She repeated it with a few more canisters, taking some brain tissue and blood samples. Putting them back in her back she nodded to Althea and stepped back. "Done," she said. "If they want more they can just clone the freaking thing for all I care." Waiting for Althea to do her thing she thought about her comment, the fact that they could encounter more of these creatures. "I wonder what kind of abilities they'll have," she noted. "This thing had a form of mental ability, I wonder if the others will have the same. I mean, mental abilities would require less energy, right?" She suddenly started smiling. "Well, at least this is going to be interesting," she said happily. "I mean, if this is just the first thing we encounter, just think about what else could be down here."

Karin nodded. "I see," she said, "that makes sense. In that case, I guess it's something that just uses the same principles? Personally the whole thing reminds me of something a lab-mate was studying. There's supposed to be this group of islands on one of the Cosmere planets with creatures that can sense minds, and even mimic mental signatures, or influence them. They were researching how it worked in an effort to mimic it themselves. It sounds kind of similar to what's going on here, don't you think?"

Karin nodded to Althea. "It's probably not chemical," she agreed. "Given the number of people from different planets here the chance of a chemical that can induce a specific mental state in all them would be rather small." Not to mention the fact that it shouldn't work on me, she mentally added. "It's probably magical," she continued, "which is rather interesting. I doubt it's actual allomancy, given that from what I remember that requires access to certain metals, which I doubt can be found here in sufficient quantities. There might be some ore here though, I'm not sure if allomancers can use ores directly?" @Sorana

Karin looked at the newcomer, thinking about his question. "Probably not," she said. "The thing looks like an apex predator. I hope it is, at least. No real reason for those to be poisonous. I mean, the thing would probably still kill you if you eat it, but I doubt it specifically has poisonous blood. No clue why the blood should be corrosive either. It isn't anything that normally occurs with lifeforms in this universe and it doesn't really serve any evolutionary purpose, aside from requiring exotic chemical systems to prevent your veins from corroding away while still allowing proper oxygen transfer to cells." She shook her head. "Seriously, corrosive blood is a giant nightmare to create." She started walking towards her backpack, which luckily had stayed intact during the fighting. "I can run some tests for you though, if you want to," she called back. "I should have a pH indicator strip in my pack. I'm not sure how to test toxicity though, aside from just slapping some of the stuff on a radiant's skin and checking the reaction. If it's poisonous they can use some stormlight to heal it."

Karin nodded to Deb. "Thanks," she said. She looked over the body, and put a hand in the pocket of her jacket, shaping a knife into it, using the pocket to hide what she was doing, instead making it look as if she just pulled it out. Leaning over the worm she started cutting loose a large slab of meat, taking care not to splatter anything on her cloths. She wasn't really keen on another bath right now. She started cutting the meat into smaller bits that would actually fit in her mouth. "You might want to look away," she told the people around her. "This probably won't look tasty." She stabbed the knife into the ground next to her and grabbed the first piece of meat, shifting away her tongue and disabling her sense of smell. She put the first piece into her mouth, a long strip of meat, still dripping blood. Hidden from view small claws extended from the inside of her mouth and throat, pulling the meat into her throat without having to even chew, a 10-inch piece of meat disappearing into her mouth in less than five seconds. As soon as it was gone she grabbed another piece, and then another, continuing until she had devoured over 4 kilos of meat. She felt the meat disappear from her stomach, and her mass reserves filling back up to full. Once everything was gone she groaned. She hated speed-eating like that. She had to do it enough times that she was used to it now, but the feeling still made her feel like throwing up. Sighing she grabbed the knife, cleaning it in the pond right next to the corpse since anything coming of the knife there couldn't contaminate the water any further. Satisfied that the knife was clean she put it back into her pocket, reabsorbing it. Standing up again Karin looked at the others. "Well," she said with a disappointed sigh, "that was the least satisfying meal I've had in a long time. Thanks for giving me the time to eat though."

Karin took the towel and started drying herself. She thought about Althea's question and nodded. She had forgotten about the corpse poisoning the water, or attracting predators. She normally didn't really need to consider water or poison after all. "If we're going to pull it out we'll need to get some help," she noted. She took a second look at the body, and licked her lips. "Do you think anyone will mind if I eat some of it?" She asked. "Being digested makes me hungry."

Karin looked at Althea, and then looked down at herself noticing the gore covering her, as well as the rancid smell that hung around her. "One sec," she said, walking to the pool. "I'll try some water first, I'd prefer not having to throw away my clothing away so soon into the expedition. Besides," she added with an embarrassed look, "given the number of cloths I'd have to change I'd prefer to wait until I've gotten a place with a bit more privacy." With that she dove into the pool, quickly sinking underwater. While underwater she altered her hand, the surface changing into something resembling a sponge, and glands all over her body started producing a soap-like substance. She really hoped she was far enough down nobody could see what she was doing, but it should be enough to clean herself up again. It seemed her clothing was still in decent condition as well, with little actual damage. Finishing up she swam back to the surface of the pond. Climbing back out she checked herself, checking for any remaining gore as well as checking how she smelled. She nodded, satisfied. She probably still looked like a drowned cat, but at least she was clean again, and she didn't make the entire cave smell like a rotting cadaver anymore. She looked at Althea. "Is the offer of a towel still open?" She asked.

Mari gave a silent nod. "Does anyone know who the victim is?" She asked. A hint of frustration crept into her voice. Another person had died, and nothing they were doing had any effect in stopping it. Even worse, normally she would have loved a task like this, a job where she didn't have to kill anyone. But this was just turning into a confusing mess where she had no idea what to do.

Karin nodded. "Althea is correct," she said in a more serious tone. "In my case I'm an Epic. As for my abilities... Basically, I've got an enhanced physiology, regeneration and partial shapeshifting. Part of that includes that I don't actually need to breath, as well as being able to survive stuff that I really shouldn't be able to." She shrugged, looking down at the corpse of the worm, and then at Wes. "Sorry, I didn't notice anyone else in there," she said. "Not a nice way to go," she muttered to herself, looking down.

Karin suddenly felt a small shock flow through the dead beast, and a breath of air flowed around her. She opened her eyes, seeing some light beneath her feet, then immediately closed them again as acid started burning them. Over here! She tried to yell, but no sound came out, since her lungs were still empty. She took a deep breath, nearly triggering some left-over chocking reflex as the acid burned her lungs and throat, and tried again. "Over here!" She yelled in a happy tone to whoever was chopping up the beast. "I'm head first into this thing," she continued. "Wait for a bit, I might be able to crawl out." She retracted the spikes on her arms, shrinking them until all they did was provide some additional friction. She then started moving her arms around in a peculiar fashion, pushing herself towards the light while at the same time pushing the stomach outwards to reduce the force keeping her there. In the beginning it was difficult, but after a minute or so she had gotten the hang of it, and her feet exited the worm. using her feet she pulled herself further out of the worm, until after a minute longer she was finally fully out of the worm. She stood up, stretching herself out and let out an extremely fake-sounding yawn. "Well, that was a nice nap," she quipped. "Did I miss anything?" She looked around through the cave, trying to get an idea of the general situation.

Karin felt the worm spasm one final time, and then it fell to the ground, dead. She wondered why though. It couldn't have been her actions that killed it, not yet at least. So that meant the others had killed it. That was all good, but it did raise the question of how she'd get out of this thing. The pressure on her had lessened to some degree, but she still couldn't really move around. With some luck someone would decide to check up on her and free her. She had told Althea she was a regenerator after all. Still, it was probably best not to rely on that. She nodded to herself. Time to get out of this place! she thought, trying to cheer herself up. Back in the cave part of the worm started wriggling about, first softly but slowly getting more violent. Finally something that looked like a knife or a tooth slammed through the side of the worm. It slowly started to move back and forth, trying to cut trough the skin. It couldn't find much purchase though, and it didn't do that much.

Karin rested inside the worm's stomach. Around her she felt the walls shift, expanding and contracting, shaving around her. Rips had started appearing from the teeth on her arms, and it seemed things where happening outside as well, judging by some of the thrashing. She prepared herself and waited, and just as as the stomach expanded again she jammed her arms sideways, expanding the teeth at the same time, stabbing deeper into it. She kept repeating it, again and again. While she was doing all that she started feeling sorrow about killing the worm. Sure, it was eating her, but it wasn't as if it had any ulterior motifs there. Food was food after all. That reminded her to eat some it if afterwards, she needed to refill her reserves. It was a waste though, killing it. It was an extremely curious organism, being able to grow to such a size in these caverns, and the soothing was exceptional. She wondered if it was actually soothing, or just something with similar properties. Aside from all the weirdness with an allomantic worm, there was the question of where it would get all the required metal. On the other hand, she remembered reading reports about creatures on a certain planet that had evolved the ability to sense minds, even mimic and broadcast mental signatures. She figured this might be something similar to that, instead of actual allomancy. She sighed, or tried to at least. A stomach wasn't the best place to get the air necessary for sighing after all. She would have to report the existence of these creatures to the department once she got back. They would absolutely love investigating this. Best not to mention she had to kill one of them though, they wouldn't like that, never mind the fact that it was eating her at the time. Just then the stomach expanded again, the creature thrashing around, and she jammed the teeth into it again, and smiled. She had finally managed to fully penetrate the stomach wall. She started moving around her arms, small motions, trying to expand the holes. The stomach acid started escaping through the wounds. She prepared herself for more thrashing. The creature really wouldn't like the pain that would come next, after all.

Roughly 1500-1000 years, you'll need @Voidus for a more specific number.

I'll either be using Aylitha before she joined the DA (which does need a higher point limit, given that she'd have essentially endless regeneration), or a somewhat insane old DA experiment (basically a lightweaver that had their spren fused into their body and their surges modified).

Mari looked at Mike, wondering what he was doing. She followed him as he walked through the room, walking a short distance behind him to give him some space. Suddenly a scream came from one of the rooms. She turned towards it, and saw a man inside aiming a gun at Mike. Immediately she started dashing towards him, storing all her weight each time her feet left the ground, crossing meters with every step.

Karin was suspended in darkness, trapped in the beast's stomach. She could feel it trying to crush her, the acids burning away at her body, only for the wounds to immediately regenerate again. She had tried opening her eyes, only for them to immediately burn away as well. She kept them closed now, and had severed the optic nerve. It didn't matter much of course, they got damaged all the same, but seeing your vision being burned away was disturbing all on its own, even if you couldn't feel the pain. She slowly got used to it though, and stopped panicking. Her regeneration was easily keeping up, she didn't need air, and the drain on mass reserves was low enough that she could easily stick it out for an hour or two before dying. The biggest issue at the moment was that all the acid would ruin her outfit. She had selected it based on durability, but she doubted it could stand up to this. She started trying to move, trying to think of way out this situation. She tried shaping a knife in her hand, but the force from thing's stomach made it impossible to move enough flesh around to actually form it. She tried moving around, seeing if she could push outwards with her arms to create space, but she wasn't strong enough. She stopped moving, feeling the wall of the stomach slide around her, thinking about her next move, aside from waiting until someone killed the thing. Suddenly she smiled, giving her a look that would have been rather disturbing if anyone would have been able to see it, parts of the flesh of her face still regenerating and other parts being burned away. Sharp teeth started growing inside of her arms, arranged in a pattern similar to a saw-blade, or a serrated knife. The flesh in between the teeth stopped regenerating, either being absorbed by her body or burned away by the gastric acids of the beast's stomach. The stomach pushed closer inwards, pushing itself onto the teeth, the movement of the beast making it start to cut its own stomach to pieces on the teeth. It would likely take a bit before the damage would start to really show, but when it did... Still smiling Karin relaxed, waiting until something else happened, taking the time to contemplate her current existence as worm-food. It was her first time being digested after all, and while she didn't much care to become an expert on the subject the knowledge could always be useful. She noticed that the pressure of the stomach wall was actually kind relaxing, once you got used to the crushing and the burning of the acid. It was warmer than she had expected, since a worm-like creature would have normally been ectothermic. It made sense though, once she thought about it. It's level of movement wasn't something you'd expect from a cold-blooded creature, especially not with the local ambient temperature, or its ability to function out of the water. Of course, the level of metabolic activity implied by that didn't really work out either. Hibernation, she guessed, or some other form of torpor. She nodded, or at least tried to. Heterothermy, that made sense, given the circumstances.

Karin watched calmly as the worm rose out of the pool, looking at it as it ate two other expedition members. Ignoring the shouts about soothing or the people who appeared to be shooting at it she walked closer to it, dropping her backpack along the way. No need to take that into gunfire after all, HR would kill her if they found out about it, if she was lucky at least. "Hmm, you're a big one," she muttered as she walked up next to it. "Where did you find all the food? You can't be surviving on just fish, can you?" She touched it's skin, feeling slime come of it onto her fingers. "How calm I am is curious too," she continued, "soothing, someone said? Maybe a way to catch prey without them fleeing?" It took a moment for that to sink in. "Ah," she said when she realized it, and her expression became one of abject terror. "Oh no," was all she had time to say before the thing's mouth came down around her and swallowed her whole.

#8 Dark Alley:

Mari looked at him, wondering which areas he needed to be filled in on. The chances of him not knowing about the assassination were slim, but it might be best to add that too. "People assassinated Mr. Itiah," she said brusquely. "The dead girl was part of them, said they were the Uninvested. We're currently discussing how to arrest our main lead."

Huh. Not entirely sure what I should think of that, but sure, let's go with that.

If you want a spike you should just say so...

Fatebreaker is that old business partner of grandfather Voidus that only the other old folks knew about who suddenly came back and started getting Voidus involved in all sorts of shenanigans again.

Mari looked at him for a second. "Assassination," she said in a cold tone, "hand-to-hand combat."

There was. That thing didn't last long though.