✾ Thuja Cerasis, Third Bloom ✾   

Amongst the various experiments, trials, tests, drafts, projects, projections, and oh yes, don't forget tribulations, the ambitious Ascension Project encountered a minor technical difficulty. Or rather, it would have been minor, if not for the unfortunate location of one single individual at the time of the aforementioned error. 

In the midst of attempting to generate a minute temporary dimension, to prove they could create new pieces of reality’s tapestry before attempting to weave an entirely new one, their device instead created a small localized wormhole. Glittering and noxiously dark, the throat of the cosmos proceeded to abduct a nearby domestication specialist, its tools dropped in lieu for a lunge towards the others nearby; yet its vines closed on empty air mere nanometers short of those clawing to save her. 

With what almost felt like a mockingly anticlimactic *pop*, the hole snapped shut.

Not a boom, or a crack of thunder, nor peal of sonic trauma to signal the discomfort of reality at being so torn. No sound so noble or dramatic as would fit the potential loss of life, should they never be able to recover her. Simply, *pop*

Thus Thuja Cerasus, Third Bloom was callously dumped onto a skeletal jut of rock, unsure of her location, unable to go home, utterly unequipped for the situation she now found herself in.

"Wwwwwellllll… Ouuuur calculations certainly hadn't anticipated this... 

Oh flame…"

As Thuja clutched at the seed of hope that she was just somewhere unexpected, perhaps a distant satellite of some forgotten or unknown star, its vines made the sound of rain across stones as they checked its devices.

Small screens, tablets, sensors. All in a variety of forms, functions, and locations. Tucked under wooden plates, implanted into the bark of certain aspects of its form, and many meticulously grown as part of its body over the course of cycles. Glittering screens formed from hardened sap and special fibers fed from certain nutrients running through them, the affini’s body able to grow her devices into its own bodily systems. After a bloom of practicing the skill, it was as much a part of basic instincts and reflexes stored in Thuja’s core as was flexing a series of ventral tubes to flourish a drug laden thorn. Of its devices, most served some wholly novel or niche function; the incredibly specific weave of fibers woven between the layers of its bark which allowed Thuja to sense vibrations in the sophonts she helped assess, for example.

All of its sensors cheerily chirped back at her, the sounds all carefully calibrated to sound happy to 99.69-repeating % of sophont species, and outside the hearing range of the rest; the cheerfulness did not change the fact that all of their beeps were error indicators.

✾✾ No connection detected. 

✾ Communications offline

✾ Internal computing power online

✾ Distance to florets: TOO FAR

Frost.

Not only was it in some odd location that it had never heard of before, but it had no way to contact the Compact. Splendid. Phenomenal. Fan-ta.sticks.

Looking up from her screens for the first time since being dumped here like so much loose change, the true oddity of her locale struck her. She found itself on a small shelf of some fragile looking stone, on what appeared to be a small landmass made of the same material. Beyond the landmass appeared to be… Open space? No screen of gasses or particles seemed to protect this miniscule skipping stone from the vastness of the uncaring cold of open space, yet it maintained its own atmosphere. Despite the lack of a specific star, as well as entirely ignoring (for now) the fact that the stars perceivable from here jittered, discoloured, and contorted themselves as tho part of a malfunctioning simulation, this location seemed to have the necessary warmth and air needed to sustain some form of life.

As maddeningly curious as it was frightened, the stranded scientist did what scientists the universe over are known for doing: explored. The rock shelf was connected to a tall mount of stone, with what appeared to be a path curving around where the overhang met the rest of the mass. Currently, it realized with a start and a rare twinge of fear which hastened the spreading spiderweb of green over stone, nothing was below this particularly pathetic puny protuberance.

Revealed to the questing creeper-vines and crystalline eyes was a vista most unexpected. Guessing estimates, the island appeared to be about the size of one block in a habitation zone, with some sparse vegetation of a low lying, purple grass. On the far side, opposite the displaced domesticationist, appeared what may have been a forest. Deep red cousins arrayed before its eyes, spearing the space-scape beyond with their bark and whatever they presumably used to capture light to turn to food. 

However, the feature most extraordinary to all logic and sense was not the forest of space grown trees dotting the horizon, but the large residence which took up most of the center of the rock. Using her cousins as North, to the East of the residence rolled hills furred with that low lying purple grass, dotted with what looked to be structures too small to make out precisely from this range. The West held what appeared, at first, naught but a hole through to further space, till the perceptive plant realized it was a perfectly unperturbed pool, reflecting the stars above it. 

✾✾ Observation log:

✾ Fascinating, I seem to be on a small rock somewhere in an unfamiliar sector. 

✾ These stars are none I've seen nor heard of, and they move most disconcertingly.

✾ There appears to be plant growth on the far side 

✾Despite this space seeming to be no bigger than a minor asteroidal body, it seems to have no movement nor bodies it is orbiting. Perhaps most fascinatingly, it appears to be anomalously generating its own atmosphere. I-

Trying to nip the bud of panic, which such agony inspires in all creatures, the startled scientist sought out a sanctuary from the seeping pain, that agony seamlessly encapsulating every vine of its sinuous form. Yonic vents tore along the vines as rapid mineral production forced them to erupt in crystalline eyes, desperately searching for the cause of the pain. 

✾✾ Self scan initiated

✾ .

✾ .

✾ .

✾ Bacterial scan: negative

✾ Viral scan: negative

✾ Microbe scan: normal

✾ Radiation levels: normal

✾ Total result: No threats detected on self nor in environment. Have a nice day!

Feeling the vibrating bud of panic beginning to blossom, Thuja desperately threw its gaze to its form, hoping to chance upon clues its sensors were not keyed for. Upsetting its expectations, but not herself, she found them. Some force, some influence, something was causing her to dissolve. Observably rapid yet slow, pieces of her were detaching, fluttering away as if her atoms were turning to leaves before a lazy late-cycle breeze, glittering as they vanished into the air. 

Pink petals and vines whistled through the air as it did the only thing it could think to do, return to the outcropping which had been its landing point. With a sound not far dissimilar to thick oak splintering, Thuja compressed itself as much as it could, attempting to ensure it did not stray into whatever it was which had begun eating away at it.

Five arms and wings, six legs, too many eyes to count and a head which spirals open for speaking; not as simple as other sophonts, but having a Spirouqian floret for as long as their blessedly long lives were had made this anatomical arrangement almost as familiar as when she allowed herself to uncoil into her constituent appendages.

Safety from the invisible devouring achieved, the uncountable eyes of Thuja more thoroughly took in the thin protuberance which hung over the twinkling eternity below it. Previously missed, an unassuming wooden sign had been planted into the soil near the path which curved around the looming spire of rock which kept newcomers from viewing the rest of the isle. The writing was notable for two key queernesses: The first being that the writing lacked any sign of wear or aging, much like the plank which bore it. The second of the writing’s anomalous attributes was being initially illegible to Thuja, however before its very eyes they rippled, twisted, and bloomed into the flowing glyphic affini text which she had read since seedhood.

"Visitors, welcome! If you wish not to be consumed by my home, please take a token for protection. If such decoration is an affront to your sensibilities, wait here and I'll be by to collect you. Eventually. 

Warmly, 

L'runauzd"

Hung below were a number of different forms of decoration, all which bore, in some form, a winged shape with a fractaling starburst in the center, eclipsing the top and bottom of the flared shapes. The options, in many ways, were varied, but the crest of this L'runauzd was always a crystalline substance the same colour as the depths of the void which surrounded the isle.

✾✾ Observation: On this location, cellular consumption has ceased, tho the cause for the beginning of the advanced rate at decay is as of yet unknown.

✾ According to a discovered sign, this place appears to be some sort of anomaly which absorbs that which is inside of it, unless it is native. This last part is conjecture.

✾ Damage from atmosphere can be healed normally once out of consumption effect of atmosphere. (Source, natural healing has already replaced the lost mass. No nanite assistance needed)

✾ Location seems to be inhabited by at least one instance of sapient life. 

✾ I have a name, it's on the sign.

✾ Currently unclear if said entity is hostile, or either a threat to themselves or myse-

All thirty eight observable eyes closed in unison, the single facet of hammered metal it kept on the inside of its chest joining them as Thuja realized that one of the lines of data in its autorecorder was not put there by it. With flexed face tendrils, it drew in a breath between the petals of this form’s face, the noise made that of steam boiling forth from the depths of a burning tree. As, once more, it opened its eyes, it watched as text appeared to write itself on the pad that Thuja kept stored in its chest to avoid misplacing.

✾ Ahh, you noticed! I wondered how long-

"-it would take you to realize I had commented. After all, so many eyes, I figured you'd be observant." 

The voice came low, with a hint of roughness as the register chaotically rose and fell with its emphasis, although it remained welcoming at all times.

Suspended in otherwise empty space was an entity unlike anything Thuja had seen, which sent the specialist into subsonic vocalizations of excitement:

✾✾ Four similar limbs

✾ Two on lower body, ambulation perhaps?

✾ Two on upper body, presumably torso area; based on the extremities, used for interaction with other things 

✾✾ Seven specialized limbs. Two groups

✾ Four large, faintly glowing black wings, the bone structure clearly visible beneath the skin revealing an overall structure similar to the extremities on the limbs the entity was gesturing with as it spoke. 

✾Hello?

✾ Three tails which seem to have a high degree of articulation. Unsure if prehensile. Vine-like, a few thorn analogues along their backs. Tips are vine-like and smooth.

✾✾ Face is simple

✾ Mostly flat 

✾ That feels rude for some reason. I don’t say your face is spirally, do I?

✾ Two primitive light sensitive organs

✾ Orifice for communication located on the lower half of its face

✾ Two protuberances curve back over head. Horns? Feelers? Antennae? 

✾ The rest of the sophont is covered in various fabrics which appear to be either woven or hide-based, so further examination will need to wait

✾ I see, a biologist are you then? One who studies life in all the forms it can take?

✾ Appears to have ability to interface with our technology without physically touching or appearing to be able to perceive it

✾ Limited local omnipresence? Unclear. Not quite. 

“How do you keep doing this?” Despite the thirsting ache to know more that had taken root in Thuja’s core, the situation’s growing eldritch novelty had finally overwhelmed her training, and allowed a thorn of irritation to dig itself into its tone. 

"I’ll answer you that if you answer me this-" with a barely perceptible gutter of light, L'runauzd's eyes, for this must be the entity named on the sign, did… something, which caused its eyes to glow a deep violet before it bared its teeth in a curved expression. "-Thuja, does that little device on the inside of your chest record your thoughts directly, or is it responding to that low level humming noise I hear you make whenever words start appearing on it?"

For the second time this hour, Thuja found all thirty eight of her currently open eyes blinking in a confused concert.

✾ Appears to have ability to interface with our technology without physically touching or appearing to be able to perceive it

✾ Limited local omnipresence? Unclear. Not quite. Seems probable

"I-It is a…" Racing thoughts of biological fascination finally calming so the rest of its thoughts could unite in gathering themselves into a semblance of cohesion, all that focus fractures as an even more important question crosses the confused affini’s thoughts.

"How are you understanding me? How am I understanding you? You've a much simpler communications orifice, and I've never seen an entity such as yourself before, so I doubt you know Spirouqian, how are you capable of-" 

Irregular noise patterns pierce the excited specialist's babbling, the mandibles curling into an open bud of confusion as she looks up at the floating creature, eyes gleaming different colours as it realizes L'runauzd is laughing.

"Oh you are simply adorable when you get excited, Thuja. My apologies for laughing~"

L'runauzd’s eyes flit from one gem-like eye to the other, always gazing directly into them as the anomaly lands before the startled affini, eyes just high enough that each of the thirty-eight crystals looking at them have to turn upwards as the strange figure proffers their hand to Thuja. 

✾✾ Could have miscalculated; seems to be taller than they were earlier.

✾ Alternative possibility: Shapeshifting

✾✾ Articulation extremities tipped in small protrusions; do not appear to be claws.

"I suppose we have some basics to get out of the way: My name is L'runauzd. Written with the glyphs for Desire, Kindness, Creativity, Obtain, Help, and Positive. I am a Lytunue, 'void entity of different patterns.' Pronouns are she/fien. Amusingly, to me at least, perhaps this will irritate you, in fact I almost would bet that it will...  The reason I can understand you is the same as what lets me know whatever you are currently writing on that fascinating little device inside of you.”

Thuja would never admit to having been heavily influenced by her florets’ behaviours and habits, after all it was the one which did the conditioning and training. However, either of its many-eyed Spirouqian pets would have questioned her certainty of that, as she demonstrated the very Spirouqian habit of managing irritation by hyper-inhaling, letting the internal atmosphere of their maws cool the incinerated air, and letting the filtered mist exit via the heptet of vents which lined the back of their head’s chitinous plates.

It had, of course, been remarking upon the smug figure’s patterns of speech and wishing it would just get on with its point, when it had made the mist-inducing remark. 

    “I can understand you, and you I, due to magic."