4 Decisions, decisions, decisions ( ͠• ︵ ͡•)
Max waited a few seconds after she purple-nurpled her victim to bask in his regret of picking her up. Ahhhh sweet revenge. Maybe it wasn't for her adaptiveness that Sage had reincarnated her into a snake, but her vindictiveness, but hey, Max is no saint ok. Docility and biddability are for victims, not survivors.
She let go and squiggled up over his shoulder just in time to avoid being squashed by a timely fist to the shoulder. Yep, that will be leaving a bruise. Max briefly mourned that loss of opportunity to create havoc if she'd been bigger. She had plenty of inspiration from the movies she had seen back on Earth. However at 40 cm, one wrong move may end with her being on the ground next to his leather-covered feet, and if the shoes were anything like the gloves, it would hard if not impossible to bite through it.
Ergo, there was possibility of her getting stomped on. Not ideal. Max's solution to this problem was simple and sweet. She curled around the base of his neck, put her mouth over his carotid and hissed slowly.
Don't think you are getting away so easily here. If there was any time to listen it would be now. The man went still. Yes, much better. Max's eyes curved in satisfaction. Much better indeed. She eyes the four others. Where once laughing buffoons stood, now they were armed with short knives, daggers, Max corrected herself.
Well, what do you know? Not so harmless after all. The four spread out and cautiously moved closer to their comrade. 'Oh no, can't have that can we.' Max thought to herself. She lifted her tail and waggled it at them like a parent scolding their child while she tightened her coil around the man's neck. Stop right there.
The woman on the left got the hint and gestured for the others to stop. Max's eyes curved. Ah, smart people are the best. That is why she had an Arin. As for what Arin gets out of their friendship? Max brings many things to the table, randomness, and adventure being the best of them, but enough about that right now.
The question is, how should she communicate, or whether did she want to communicate here and now. So let's look at the facts here.
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• Option 1:
Hostage has an impromptu meeting with Sage via venomous injection, courtesy of Max.
+ Pro:
Quick getaway
Avoid trickery
- Con:
Arin location difficulty increases
Hostage dead
Poor relations with other species
Hmm... This one does not seem worthwhile. Very well then, on to the next one. Max's concentration was interrupted as one of the women, the green-headed one, had sneakily snuck her way closer.
'Nice try, but alas you are doom to fail here.' Max could feel her captive tense as she hissed in amusement at the other's actions. What a power trip. No Max, don't go there. Deep breath and pay attention. Max tilted her head and kept contact on the green-head, actually let's just go with 'Lettuce' as she carefully laid her fangs perpendicular against the man's throat. Get the picture here lady.
Lettuce froze and motioned at the redhead, 'Tomato', 'Corn', and 'Carrot'. Max dubbed internally. There, much better. Max's narrowed eyes curved in delight, pleased with herself. Now let's figure a way out of this option, oh yes!
• Option 2: Initiate Communications
+Pro:
Arin location network
People to talk with
Potential Captivity
-Con:
Language Barrier
Killed after use
Trickery is possible/Alternative motives
This one has promise. Max's eyes narrowed, and she slapped her captive on the nose. Bad, bad Cauliflower! Cauliflower flinched and dropped his hands. Yes, you just stay where you are or Option 1 it is! Max heard a 'pfft' of laughter and glared over at Tomato. Don't judge you stinky tomato-head. It wasn't like she could choke her prisoner out and escape. Not with this hold. She didn't even weigh a single kilogram here. A girl had to improvise! Max kept eye contact with the despicable tomato-head and slapped Cauliflower's nose again in warning, this time making sure to hiss out her warning.
Cauliflower yelled out something and Tomato wiped his eyes, probably tears from fear Max assured herself. Now the two options she had so far were ok, but she didn't really vibe with either one per se, with either one of them. Gah, she really needed Arin. Arin was the one in charge of the plans, not her. She was the well, not muscle. That was Arin, as she had carried with her the rage from many a-dimension. Max was the chaos that Arin needed to keep from being completely monotone. Anywho, back to business!
• Option 3: Jump for freedom!
+Pro:
No one dies
Freedom
Avoid bad situation
Survival
-Con:
Arin location difficulty increases
Figure out how to survive alone- don't judge
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Max's brows furrowed. Overall it boiled down
1. Location of the Arin
2. Survival
3. Captivity
4. Communication Barrier
5. Alternative Motives
6. Death
Great. Just great. There wasn't going to be an easy way out any way you look at. In all honesty, the potential for communication was just too little. On earth, would you talk with a snake? Lovers of 'The Danger Noodles, put your hands down. You don't count. Sure Sage existed, but that does not automatically mean that any of the people or beings on this planet could talk to animals regardless of Sage's Nurturing Nature/Destructive state of being. So that eliminated 'Option 2'.
Ok next is 'Option 1' or 'Kill the Hostage' or- Wait. Max felt that there was something wrong with this option but for the life of her, she couldn't figure it out. Eh, whatever, she'll have to think on it later. The biggest problem with this would loss of a potential Arin-locating network and fleeing of her own life. Not to mention long-term effects. Urk, not ideal. Yes, she does blend in here, but does she want to spend her life here? Besides, if she bites her captive and the venom is too weak then the possibility of being captured rises exponentially.
That left 'Option 3' or 'Jump for Freedom.' This of all the options appealed the most because of the "Eh, fuckit" nature of this choice. Sure the 'Arin Location Network' is not a possibility right now but let's face it here. Does she know the language? No. Is it possible that they have ulterior motives? Yes. Do any of these decisions guarantee her a warm and or friendly welcome? Hell to the no. Does she want to kill? Well, that seems a little messy so no, not really. Does she want to die? No, aside from that, Max felt that if she did die after less than a day in her new body, the odds of Sage reincarnating her into a barnacle or something along those lines were a little high for her liking. Max could feel a headache forming between her eyes, or maybe it was the soreness from furrowing stiff eyebrow muscles. Either way! Enough thinking and time for action!
Max made pulled her head back and struck. As the vegetable crew was hollering for their poor Cauliflower, the power of the strike carried Max a meter past, her body grazing alongside the backside of the pitiful Cauliflower. To freedom we go!
Max hit the ground slithering while the vegetable crew scrambled over to their friend to make sure that Cauliflower was ok. Max felt that Cauliflower was being a little too negative here. It was obvious to her that he was cursing up a storm judging by the brutal harshness in his voice.
'Big baby.' Max thought as she zig-zagged her way to safety. She didn't even drop one little droplet of venom on him, let alone bite him. Whatever. The goal right now is out of sight, out of mind. Hmm. While that may not be completely accurate, it worked for her.
'Just keep slither-ing, keep slither-ing, just keep slither- ....No. Just stop there Max.' She scolded herself.
'It took you years. Years! To get that song out of your head and you will not. Will not! Ever! Do that to yourself! Never ever again!' Unbeknownst to her, she had already started to unconsciously hiss-hum 'Just keep slither-ing.'
Max was 40 cm long, and while she moved fast for her size, some of the world's fastest snakes can move at speeds up to 19 km per hour. Max was not that fast. In fact, Max would be lucky if she could even cover 2 km in an hour. While her diminutive size was ideal for ambushing her prey, she was not built for racing over the ground.
In other words, what seemed fast to her, could be considered slow for others. A point in her favor though, was that Max's black scales allowed her to blend and almost disappear into her current environment. This could have been enough, but she did not take into account how experienced these gatherers were. Years of honing their observational and instinctual skills in order to survive, and the speed at which they could react to a situation, created a beautifully horrible clusterfuck for Max.
Max made it about two meters before she got grabbed. Again. 'Of course, it's Lettuce.' Max thought irritably. Stupid Lettuce, too smart for her own good. Max attempted to grab her thumb. However Lettuce-head, apparently being far smarter than her other comrades just stuffed her into a bag. Max felt a tick in her eye. This bitch just stuffed her in a friggin' sack like a flipping kid stuffing Halloween candy in their bag.
Great. Just great. This is what she gets for going with Option 3. She should have injected and am-scrammed. None of this, 'Ah ha! Did I scare the piss out of you?' while cackling internally like maniac shit. So what this bag was nice... And cozy. Not to mention it was dark. Gosh, Max never realized how comforting complete dark could be. Aside from the glow that is. Max looked around trying to place, but she just couldn't find the source. Eh, whatever. Max wriggled around as she tried to get more comfortable and to avoid potentially becoming one big knot. Once she coiled up nice and neatly, Max could feel her muscles loosen bit by bit, and her eyes drift downwards. Mmm nice and cozy.
...'NO! THIS IS NOT COZY! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! GIVE HER FREEDOM OR GIVE HER FOOD!' Max spazzed back to wakefulness. In all honesty, Max didn't know where the last part came from, sure she was a little, ok maybe a lot hungry, but that did not mean that she would compromise her freedom for some food... Maybe some kimchi... or sushi, or tacos. Mmmmm tacos....
Focus Max! Focus! Max slapped herself on the face- or would that be considered a tail whip? It was quite effective. Anywhos, time to break out! Max could almost hear the spy music playing as she took stock of what she had to work with.
Location: Leather bag.
Tools:
1. Abs of Titanium, i.e. belly plates
2. Hissing (people don't like that sound- bonus for the psychological warfare option)
3. A forked tongue- What? A surprising amount of people get hung on it.
4. Fangs- People really don't like those
5. Venom- She's not quite sure if she is neurotoxic, cytotoxic, or hemotoxic but let us just go with toxic for now.
How does she know this? Well, Max watched a documentary, you never know when you might need the information and snakes were everywhere where she and Arin had grown up. People tended to have three ways of reacting. The first, run. The second, scream- those tend to be taken out of the race for survival via Darwinism, or the third kind, grab whatever is closest and kill it. Whether or not the snake was actually poisonous didn't matter. Option three tended to just kill it first instead of checking to see if it was 'harmless.' Max slumped in depressedly. A life of yummy food and carefree explorations gone away in the blink of a reincarnation.
Max stayed that way for about two seconds. Ok, the suck has been acknowledged. Now it's time to live it up and get the dodge out of here! Max sunk her fangs into the bag and promptly got stuck. Max felt like she was going to explode. See look, no Arin and now Max can't even get out of simple kidnappings like this dammit!
Max jerked her head back hoping to retract her fangs but no luck there. 'Plan B,' it is then Max thought. Milligram by milligram, Max started to pump venom. Hopefully, her venom was cytotoxic, that way the bag would degrade.
There was another issue at hand though. The jostling of the bag was incredibly uncomfortable and made it hard to focus on injecting venom. This wasn't working out, maybe when her captors reached their destination, she could figure out a plan of action then. Max released her concentration and stopped with the venom. The leather had shrunk oddly enough. Max with a deft flick of her tongue and picked up the scent of burnt leather. Gross, but at least her venom worked well enough for her to finally retract her fangs. That complete, Max coiled up to go over her options again.
Between the jostling and her inability to stay still unless knocked out or just too tired to care. The bag was just too big for her to get herself out of. Even if she did, she'd have to contend with getting away from the vegetable crew and going by previous experiences the odds were against her. Max let out an irritated hiss. Letting others decide one's fate just was not something that she could get behind. That just wasn't her style. Besides Sage that is, but that was more of a distinct lack of attention there.
The next best thing to do then is thrash. Small though she be, irritating someone one of her favorite talents and yes she felt a little smug over that. So for the next two hours Max thrashed and thrashed. Whipping her tail repeatedly against the leather, doing a full-body squiggle, anything she could think of to annoy lettuce-head.
Nothing worked.
Max laid on her back breathing exhaustedly. Dammit. She didn't want to be an accessory, be milked, or worse, eaten. As she worked to calm her breathing and get her strength back up, Max listened to the conversation. While initially, the vegetable crew spoke harshly, their voices had evened out eventually carrying an almost musical quality to it.
Max's eyes narrowed. So here she was struggling to get out of this infernal bag and they are just chilling while they walk and talk. The nerve. Max made a full-hearted somewhat pitiable attempt to wriggle and annoy the vegetable crew, but she didn't have the energy for it. She didn't know how long it had been since she had arrived, or even how long since she had eaten and frankly, Max was running on empty. Max made a note to herself as her eyes slipped shut to slap Lettuce-head when she was pulled out of this infernal bag. In the meantime, might as well gather her strength.
