Forums » General Roleplay » Meet Cute Event (Eric and Greensinger)

Dr. Eric Lansing perched precariously on the edge of his stool as he leaned over the countertop. His eyes were focused on the beaker of some reddish-purple hue that bubbled faintly from a Bunsen burner keeping it hot. In his right hand, he held an eye-dropper, filled with a clear liquid that might have been water. But anyone who knew the infamous scientist, would have known better.

An experiment was in progress, and woe to anyone who had the misfortune to trespass upon his most sacred of tasks. Fortunately it seemed those who might have otherwise barged in, had heeded his "Do Not Enter" sign. It may have had something to do with the additional text explaining that "Trespassers Will Be Used As Subjects in Further Experiments".

As he brought the eye-dropper closer, he wasn't prepared for the sudden movement in his lab coat pocket. A furry glowing face with long whiskers and a cold nose poked out. Tungsten, not one to be left out of any experiment, clambered up Eric's labcoat. Unfortunately, that was the same time Eric squeezed the eye-dropper and with the additional, even if slight, weight of the glowing rat, it was enough to throw off his balance and timing. Too many drops fell from the tip of the dropper and splashed into the boiling reddish-purple liquid.

The last thing Eric saw, before blacking out, was a cloud of noxious green gas erupting from the beaker, as he was thrown backward by the resulting explosion.

They speak of coincidences, and in fact, coincidences do happen.

As the scientist brings down the eye-dropper nearer to the beaker, someone, very far away, presses a few keys on a console.

The the drops fall, a large button is pressed.

And right after the explosion, there is a flash of light in the laboratory.

A small silhouette can be seen for a moment, in the middle of the smoke, standing on the table. It waves its arms around comically for a bit, trying to get the gas that surrounds it away from its face. How odd, the sensors had said that the air was perfectly breathable...

Well, sure enough, when Greensinger steps out of the smoke, the air proves itself to not be as poisonous as that. The odd plantlike humanoid in a labcoat hops down from the table and looks around for a moment, leaves shuffling with every movement.

"Looksss like sssomeone make boom boomssss... oh! Floran ssssee Human!", she says, in a voice so full of hissing it cannot be that of a human. The last sentence, of course, is said when she looks over her thick glasses (why yes, Greensinger wears glasses, for some reason!) and spots Eric passed out on the floor. She scurries closer and proceeds to poke the unconscious human with her shoe, gradually going from gentle nudge to violent, painful kick until - if! - he wakes up.

His head was pounding. No wait, someone was pounding on his head. He woke with a groan as something hard collided uncomfortably with his flesh. He was not dead, after all.

Although when he blinked his eyes open he wasn't entirely sure he wasn't hallucinating. Some sort of plant-person thing was towering over him.

What was it? Had it originated from the beaker's liquid? But that was impossible. Then again, so was Tungsten. He shook his head, winced as the room spun, and then slowly gained his feet again.

"I-I'm sorry, what--who--are you?" he asked, trying to get a better grasp for what this thing was doing in his lab. He was pretty sure he hadn't had any plants in his lab beforehand.

Tungsten, by contrast, had run up to the Floran and, perched on his hind feet, chittered at it angrily for kicking his person. The glow about the rat was slightly brighter than usual in his irritation.

The creature seems very enthusiastic in introducing itself! She strikes a pose, one hand behind her back and another inside his labcoat, a la Napoleon, but despite her attempts at looking proud, it is more than obvious from her hasty movements and the fact that she is almost jumping on the spot, that she is very, very excited. "Floran isss Greensssinger! Floran isss explorer and sssscientisst!"

She smiles - and what a scary smile it is! Whatever a 'Floran' is, it definitely has a larger mouth than a human, with loads and loads of teeth, similar to those of a flytrap of earth, but much tougher and sharper-looking. Let's hope she doesn't feel the need to go around biting. The murderous twitch she has isn't reassuring, either, but she seems to be behaving so far.

"Human make boom-boomsss? Boom-bo-" Whatever great piece of wisdom Greensinger was going to share is interrupted when she notices Tungsten at her feet. She lets out a shrill squeal and immediately squats to get a closer look!

"Issss ssshiny flesshy! Where human find ssshiny flesshy?" She looks positively smitten! As much as a plant creature can look smitten with something, at least.

He couldn't help but smile at the plant-creature's--at the Floran's--declaration of being a scientist. This...could get interesting and his mind began to click into gear.

At the mention of booms, however, he flushed a little. "Ah, that...that was an explosion. A small one." He glanced around the lab. Fortunately he hadn't blown out a wall or two this time. Just glass from the broken beaker and the unnatural liquid oozing its way across the floor. And a black smudge on the counter.

Then realizing Tungsten was facing off against the Floran, he had to suppress the sudden urge to snatch the rat up.

"Oh, that's Tungsten. He's harmless...as rats go." Tungsten however seemed to recognize the fact that the Floran was entranced by him and he fell back to all fours again, moving closer to give her a tentative sniff, and bringing him within reach of the Floran if she wanted to pet him.

"Floran never tried glowy flesssshy meat!", the creature muses out loud as she regards the rodent with fascination. "But Floran already hunt thissss morning." And, as if that simple statement removed all interest Tungsten has for the plantlike visitor, Greensinger stands up again.

"Floran make boom-boomsss too. Blow up all the prey. No need to cook." She nods sagely, adjusting her glasses for emphasis. "Sometimes boom-boomsss too when Floran make sssscience."

Speaking of science, she starts pacing around the room. From all the instruments she sees, it's finally beginning to click that she has found a fellow scientist's lab! "Floran lab better than Human one. Floran have big pod with human in ssssoup. Human lab not have ssssoup pod."

The fact that the Floran seemed to regard Tungsten as a snack, rather than as a pet, alarmed Eric, and he scooped up Tungsten to stuff him back into his pocket. Not that Tungsten, stayed there. Soon as the glowing rat had righted himself, he clambered up Eric's lab coat again to perch on Eric's shoulder, the long tail wrapped for balance around Eric's arm as Tungsten chattered softly in annoyance at the disturbance.

"Ssoup? Soup pod?" Eric imagined the Floran having a human in a vat of liquid, and made a face. "You can't mean you eat humans..." then again, he ate plants, was that considered the same thing to this...Floran? Then he perked up at the mention of science. "You mean, you do science too? What sort of science?"

The Floran strikes that pose again! She gets quite proud of herself when she talks about her noble occupation. "Floran doessss many kindss of ssscience!"

She smiles broadly and then starts slowly finger counting, trying to remember all the kinds of 'ssscience' she does. "Floran catch prey and examine it. Ssssee how many timesss can ssstab before death. Write essssayss on preyssstabbing. Floran also pressss buttonsss and make ssscience and boopy noisssess happen. And sssometimess boom booms with liquidsss!"

Eric's eyes just got bigger and bigger as the Floran listed its "sssscience" skills.

"What sorts of prey do you catch?" He wasn't even sure if they had the same name for whatever it was she dealt with. But her research in stabbing the prey worried him. "Do you do that to the human you have in your...lab?" He really hoped the answer was no.

She adjusts her glasses. They aren't quite her size, and as a matter of fact, neither is her labcoat - both are a couple sizes too big. Scavenged? Stolen? Looted? We may never know. Anyway, the Floran puffs out her chest and raises a single finger. "One sssstab. Mussst be aimed well though. Have little bone thingsss in way of sssquisshiess. Floran never touch sssoup human. Was already there when Floran took pod. Can't open pod, isss good decoration though. Makess lab look sssciencey. Alsso, Floran hunt all of the prey."

Arms now crossed, she looks around for a door out. She expected a landscape and found herself inside a room! "Human hass name? Iss human and glowy thingy only flesshiess in planet?"

Eric contemplated lying to the creature just to see what it would do, but, decided against it. He didn't want to make it homicidal because he had lied to it.

"No, we're not the only fleshy things. There's lots more of us. And this is my lab. Um, I don't know if you should go outside the lab--there'll be other scientists and they'll want to check you out..."

But Eric followed her over to the door, while Tungsten clung to his shoulder. "You sure you want to go out? What landscape were you looking for anyway and where did you come from?"

He peered out the window that was probably much too high for Floran to see out of, and waited for a couple of scientists to walk by. Apparently his good luck had used itself up by keeping his lab in one piece without setting off the fire alarm or the sprinklers. Lucky him. Now he was stuck plant-sitting a strange alien plant-creature.

If the Floran had eyebrows, she'd be frowning right now. She does stop, though, and after staring at the door for a moment, turns around. "Floran not leave, then. Sscience can wait."

She does not seem to fully grasp the situation she is in though, or that she is in any kind of danger. In fact, she seems happy! "Planet full of humanss isss good though, Floran will not ssstarve. Getsss to practice ssstabbing." She rubs her hands together in anticipation! And then, a pause, and her attention returns to the scientist. The plant creature looks at him intently.

"Floran and flesshy friendsss yet?"

Eric was caught off guard by the oddly violent tendencies of the Floran, such that he paused before realizing her question.

He nodded vigorously. "Oh yes, we're definitely friends." Assuming she didn't stab her friends...but then friends weren't considered prey either, right?

He grabbed a stool and dropped down onto it, studying her. "Are there others like you, where you're from? More Floran?"

Now that Eric was sitting, Tungsten clambered down his shoulder, using his little paws and Eric's long lab coat, to reach the floor safely and look around for any interesting crumbs.

Again, the childlike creature lets out a squeal of delight! "Floran make friendssss! Floran lovesss friendss!" And out of nowhere, fast as lightning, she hugs him. Tight. A bit too tight. Oof, what a strong creature for its size!

At the question, Greensinger finally lets go of him, and nods happily. "Millionsss! Floransss ssspread through universsse, multiply, expand everywhere! Floran always a few ssstepsss ahead, but resst of Floransss ssshould invade sssoonissh, Floran thinkss." All said with that carefree smile, like she doesn't grasp the seriousness of the issue at all - or like she doesn't care. It takes but a second for the smile to fade, though.

"Floransss not like Floran much though. Not underssstand value of ssscience. Sssay Floran doesssn't stab enough. Flesshy friend not think Floran ssstab too little, yess?"

Eric was still gasping for breath at the diminuitive creature's strength for a hug, but he managed to answer her question.

"T-too little? N-no, not at all!" He shuddered to think that millions more of these creatures would land on earth and do, what? Stab everything in the name of science?

"Why are you spreading out across the universe?" he asked, intrigued. "What happened to your own planet?" He was praying the answer wasn't that they had killed everything. Otherwise his day had just gotten a little worse with the impending threat of a looming invasion of...plant creatures. No one would believe this. Until they saw Floran.

"Flessshy getss it! Floran ssstab just enough! Moderation alssso important in ssstabbing. Sssstab sssmarter, not harder."

When asked about the reasons for her race's expansionist tendencies, the creature shrugs, as if she didn't understand the question. "Is what Floransss do. Expanssion isss in Floran sssap. Floran sssspread to all of the placesss!"

After this, she brings a small, green hand to her chin. "Well, Floran visssited planet, made friend, met preyss, saw resssearch subjectsss." Hopefully those three last ones aren't one and the same. Then again, what else did the creature see here but Eric and Tungsten? "Floran goess back to sspacessship now! Floran will come back to visssit often, bring thingsss to ssstab together, bring prey meat for feassst! Floran lovesss flesshy friend!"

"Precisely!" Eric agreed, although he was probably going to rue that statement at some point in the future.

"Oh, you're leaving already?" a slightly disappointed tone entered his voice, but then he couldn't help but ask. "C-could I see this spaceship of yours? As a...a Floran'sssss ssscientissst friend?" He imitated a little of her speech.

What? He was a scientist! He would kick himself forever after if he didn't take the chance to at least ask for the opportunity.

"Ssssilly human! Fine. But jusssst a little glance!" Without another word, she grabs the fellow scientist by the arm, and presses a button on a digital-watch-like device she wears on her wrist. It beeps, and there is a blinding flash...

...and when it fades, they're no longer in the lab. Now they're inside of a rather odd place, a strange mix of hi-tech materials, wood, leather, rope, and pulsating plant matter. It is a small ship, about the same size of a modest apartment, and they are standing in a small room, over a large metallic disc on the floor - probably the teleporter. The (bamboo) doors to the next room are open, and it's quite interesting: The walls are covered in vines from which small, bioluminiscent green pods hang, but behind those vines the metal can be seen. There's a bed that is little more than a box with hay and a brown fur over it in a corner, and also a large poster depicting an odd creature, a mix of human and ape, looking calmly into the distance next to a few odd words and symbols of some alien language. Against the walls there are a small stone furnace, something that looks like an anvil, a metal table with two robotic arms attached, and an half-eaten carcass of some kind of large purple beast with a lot of eyes. It twitches occasionally, which is quite creepy, despite being clearly dead and even starting to decompose. The room ends with a large, moss-like surface that also pulsates every now and then, as if alive. It goes without saying - the place has quite the overwhelming aroma, and while it's mostly pleasant, of flowers and chlorophyll, there's also the rather invasive smell of rotting meat.

Given the mismatched nature of the inside of this ship - metal, primitive materials and invading plantlife - it's not a stretch to assume it was salvaged, or taken by force, then decorated, and that only then did these odd plants start to grow and invade the entire building.

And in the middle of all this is Greensinger, looking extremely proud of herself. "Thissss Floran'sss ssship! Flessshy not touch anything. Some things poissson to flessshiess. Mossst green thingss, in fact."

Eric didn't even have time to gather Tungsten as he was suddenly and inexplicably teleported out of his lab into...something straight out of a sci-fi movie.

The smells struck him at once, and he had to fight to keep from covering his nose in order not to offend his...host. He breathed through his mouth instead, not that that was much better, though he stared around him in wide-eyed wonder.

"Wow," he breathed. The plants and the decaying alien animal caught his attention immediately, although the Floran's warning came none-too-soon. He snatched his hand back from the ivy that was decorating the wall of the ship.

"This all came with the ship? It's...incredible. Do you have a lab on this ship?" Oh he was like a little kid at Disney World. But this was a million times better!

She shakes her head. "Floran tried, but ssssship too tiny. Ssssilly monkeyman make tiny sssshipss. Floran make lab in other planet, visssit whenever Floran want to do ssscience. Floran keepss brain in jar inside locker though. Brain in jar issss labby, yesss?" 'Labby'? She's just making up words, now. She smiles mischievously. She actually brought it on this journey as a snack, not a science prop, but it does look a lot like the pickled fleshies she often sees in other, more 'civilized' races' labs, so she can fool the human with this! Humans are notoriously dumb creatures (at least that's what Greensinger heard about them!), so she is fairly sure he won't suspect a thing. "Floran can ssshow if flesshy friend wantss. Can even take sssingle bite. But then flessshy friend hasss to promisse to go back to planet! Floran not want to disturb delicate balance of wildlife."