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matilda wormwood

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Who: Airachnid (

airachnoid) & Matilda Wormwood (

nailsandglass)
Where: Nearest forested area around LA
When: A couple days after Matilda's first post
What: Matilda's family has up and left her, so she decides to strike it on her own. A trip to see if the forest would be a good place to set up a home quickly proves to be anything but safe.
Warnings: Scary robot ladies. Little children being terrorized. ~~Attempted murder???~~ COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF ATTEMPTED MURDER

Matilda had never been under any illusions. Her parents did not love her. They barely acknowledged her existence, outside of whatever usefulness she might provide them. Yet to return home after a day in the library to find the house completely abandoned, without so much as a letter had been shocking.

Yet shock and moroseness had worn off, and Matilda had decided to pull herself up by her bootstraps. Truly, she should see this as an opportunity. She no longer had to deal with being demeaned, with living in her brother's shadow, with having so much of her freedom restricted. Thinking back on it, it was a wonder she had never considered running away.

Then again, life would had been so hard on her own...before these powers had awakened in her. With them so many new possibilities were presented, and with them Matilda was certain she could make it on her own.

She had gotten as much of her clothing and belongings as she could fit into her backpack, which in truth was not much at all, and her priority now was to find shelter. Staying at her home was unfortunately not an option since within a day the place was swarming with cops. Considering her father's line of work, it wasn't hard to figure out what must have happened.

Matilda figured it was best to leave the city. Too many people would question why a little girl was wandering around on her own all the time, and in truth she was also scared of being there at night. Flying around eventually brought her to a nearby forest. She landed there and began to walk, taking in the sight with wide and curious eyes. Perhaps she could be like Brian Robeson from Hatchet. A poor comparison, she thought with some slightly diminished enthusiasm, considering she did not have the titular item nor was she on an island. Still, the idea of surviving in the wilderness sound like the start of a great adventure!

Matilda was taking it easy, looking for a place that looked like she could build a shelter in when the sight of smoke caught her eyes. It looked like too much to be a campfire, and with an inquisitive expression she drew nearer to it.

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Earth: A small planet in the Sol system, populated by organics known as humans. Earth: Inconsequential in the greater scheme of things, its humans mostly confined to their own planet by their technological primitiveness. Earth: Airachnid's latest stop.

The landing was rougher than expected. Airachnid had chosen an area which seemed likely to be remote, and remote it was. It was also filled with tall trees, and those trees didn't do her ship any favors. Neither did the impact of her ship on the ground. The noise of something breaking echoed through the ship; it sounded one of the ship's thrusters. She'd deal with it soon enough. Her ship continued forward, carried by its momentum, until it finally stopped with a crash trail leading right to it. Though this area seemed unpopulated, she hoped that an inquisitive organic had seen her ship landing and would decide to investigate. It had been too long since Airachnid last had the chance to skewer vermin.

After a few moments of ensuring that her head trophy jars were all intact, Airachnid left her ship. She walked around to the back, where she thought the source of the breaking sound was, and found exactly what she expected to find – a busted thruster. Inconvenient, yes – but certainly repairable. She could begin repairs right now, or she could check the surrounding area for any...locals. The latter option seemed so much more appealing, especially since, though it let off smoke, the damage to her ship would not cause a fire or an explosion. She was just itching to get started.

Still...perhaps it was best to get this out of the way first. She could relish her work even more later, knowing that there were no other pressing matters to deal with. She quickly went back inside her ship to retrieve her repair kit, and, when she returned to the location of the damage, she began trying to determine what, exactly, was the problem. This wouldn't be a speedy process, but it was an important one.

It took Matilda little while to make it to the camp--except the closer she drew, the less it seemed like. She was hardly an expert but that seemed to be too much smoke for a campfire.

When she finally came within sight of the ship, and along with it Airachnid, Matilda froze. Truly reading could take you to other worlds and her own imagination was a powerful thing, but seeing such an advanced spaceship and robot with her own eyes was something else entirely. Caution was thrown to the wind and curiosity and excitement caused her to draw nearer.

The young girl slowly descended down the steep incline, trying to keep herself hidden behind trees and boulders.

After the diagnostic process was complete, Airachnid moved on to the actual repairs. She was lucky she had encountered some poor fool not too long ago; he was easy to trick and stab in the back, and, best of all, he had plenty of spare parts on his ship. She used those now to replace the bits and pieces which were damaged in the landing. Simple, but tedious.

Airachnid was adjusting part of the inside of the damaged area when she heard a noise from behind her. It was sharp but quiet, like a creature snapping a stick on the ground. She set aside her tools and turned around, scanning the area. Soon enough – a flash of color between the trees. Perfect.

"Why – a welcoming party? How hospitable," she said, walking toward where her new target was hidden. She unfolded her back appendages in preparation for the hunt. She wouldn't kill the organic immediately, of course. Cat-and-mouse games were always much more fun. She peeked behind her target's hiding spot. The organic was a human, and a small one; it looked like it was Airachnid's lucky day. "Hello there."

Matilda started a bit when she was found. She pressed against the tree as she craned her head up to gaze at the creature above her. The Cybertronian's resemblance to a spider could scarcely be missed, and it did inspire a thought in Matilda: how exactly did Cybertronians come to be? The idea that someone had made them didn't seem to make much sense, but that this creature resembled anything of the arachnid family seemed like an unusual coincidence.

Matilda had to stop that train of thought before it got away. Right now wasn't really the time to be musing such things. Airachnid was kind of pretty, and so far she had yet to do anything to really warrant suspicion on Matilda's part so she pushed away from the tree and gave her a curtsey.

"Hello! I'm not part of any party, but I do welcome you to Earth."

Airachnid chuckled. How quaint that this small human did not fear her. It seemed to not realize the danger it was in. Perhaps it was a juvenile; that would explain its size and fearlessness. No matter – it would understand the gravity of its situation soon enough.

"Oh, thank you," Airachnid said, amused. "I do expect to be here a while. Tell me: what is a little one such as yourself doing all the way out here?" She approached the human again, this time kneeling down in front of it to be closer to eye-level. She let the faux concern slip into her voice: "...You aren't alone, are you?"

She sure hoped not. The more victims, the merrier.

It was interesting to see the way an expression could still be easily identified on what Matilda could only assume was a metallic face. Matilda studied her face, seeming, if anything excited for the chance to meet another species.

"I'm looking for a home." Matilda replied. Hopefully it was okay to reveal that. The last thing she wanted was to be carted to the authorities--that was exactly why she was leaving the city and setting up a shelter elsewhere.

"I'm alone, but that's ok. I've been taking care of myself for a long time." The last bit was a lie, but Matilda was taken back by the concern in Airachnid's voice. She had never really heard that before. It was...nice.

"May I have your name? Mine is Matilda."

"It's so nice to meet you, Matilda," Airachnid said. This human didn't even seem intimidated by Airachnid's proximity – quite unusual, and quite intriguing. Either Matilda had never encountered real danger, or she was very foolish. Either way, her screams of terror would be all the sweeter for this. "Worry not; you won't have to take care of yourself any longer. That is why I'm here, after all."

She leaned in closer, a malicious smile on her face. It was about time for the game to begin.

"They call me Airachnid." At that, she forcefully stabbed the ground right next to Matilda with one of her spider appendages. "I'm a bit of a...headhunter." She stopped for a few moments, letting the implications of the situation sink in.

Perhaps Matilda should have figured there was something odd in all this. Why would the alien care one way or another for her well being? They were strangers, after all, more so than the average human on the street.

Yet Airachnid's words and kind tone seemed to indicate as such. Perhaps she realized just how young she was and spoke out of the goodness of her heart? If that was the case, even if Airachnid did eventually hand her over to authorities Matilda was happy, if just for a moment, that someone cared enough to bother.

She gave Airachnid a warm and happy smile, and that was when one of her pointed claws came dangerously close to slicing Matilda right there and then. The small girl jerked away, feeling her heart leap into her throat and she lifted her gaze back up to Airachnid uncertainly.

Matilda had made a big mistake, and the comphrehension was clear on her face as she stumbled back a couple steps.

At last, Matilda was understanding. Airachnid had enjoyed dragging out the act for a little bit, but she wanted to hunt now. She rose to her feet, and, without sparing a thought to the repairs she had left half-completed, she transformed into her spider-like second form.

Moving with her back appendages, she advanced enough to loom over Matilda.

"Go on, Matilda," she cooed, her voice sinister. Hopefully, some gentle encouragement would get her prey to make this exciting. Certainly, this would not be a challenge, but it could be a nice first experience on Earth – a little warmup, so to speak. "It's no fun for me if you just stand there."

Airachnid's word had their intended effect, and Matilda finally came over her shock enough to free her legs from their frozen state. Fear and adrenaline now drove her back up over that ledge and as far away from the hostile alien. That same fear and adrenaline kept her from thinking straight--it would have been an easy solution to just fly out of here but in the end Matilda was still a child, and she had never been in a dangerous situation like this.

Instinct, some innate survivor's skill still allowed her to make subconscious use of her newfound powers to propel her forward, allowing her to move a little faster than her short likes would ordinarily carry her. Her head whipped back and forth, desperately looking for a place that she could hide but the forest that had once seemed so full of potential as home now seemed closed off to her.

Skittering along on her spider legs, Airachnid followed Matilda steadily through the woods. She could almost taste the fear and desperation. Though she had always enjoyed more complicated acts of murder – toppling entire nations, starting devastating wars, that sort of thing – she savored these moments of simple hunting. It just didn't get better than this.

"It's quite considerate of you to help me like this," Airachnid called out toward Matilda. "I've been cooped up in my ship for so long that my joints have gotten stiff, but for every nano-klik that you flee, I get to exercise them a little bit more." She expected Matilda to be slower, considering her size, but she was pleasantly surprised. Matilda wasn't close to being a challenge to keep up with, but at least she was running. Airachnid's favorite kind of prey was the kind that thought it had a chance.

The words reached Matilda easily and she could already feel her body tiring. Running, working out? Those weren't things she ever thought about. The most exercise she had ever gotten in her life was playing hopscotch and tag in the school playground.

Yet even as she got tired, something else was building in Matilda: anger. The way that Airachnid so casually taunted her, as if it was such a normal thing to do made it pretty clear that this wasn't unusual for the alien. Had she killed other people before? Did she do this often?

Why, was she once more letting someone hurt her? She had the power to stop it, didn't she?

Certainly she was much smaller than Airachnid, but she shoulder let a little thing like that stop her.

Out running her wouldn't work, Matilda knew that. Her head was a little clearer now to recognize she could fly but she needed to know, to try and understand. She came to a stop in front of a particularly large tree and turned around, panting to try and regain her breath.

"Is this," a gulp of air, "is this what you're going to do to all the humans you. You come across?"

When Matilda stopped, Airachnid stopped as well. This was interesting. Did Matilda hope to make a final stand of some sort? What would a final stand from a human juvenile even entail? Was she prepared to condemn Airachnid's actions before her own death? Was she giving up?

Airachnid laughed lowly. "Of course not. Driving your species to near-extinction would take far too long if I went about it like this. You organics reproduce too quickly to make that effective. No, I plan to make you kill each other, though I'll certainly take any opportunity I can get to have some fun."

Airachnid didn't care much for revealing any part of her hand unnecessarily, but Matilda was about to die. Maybe knowing the inevitable fate of her species would inspire further despair in her before she died. Maybe she would even start crying. One could only hope.

Much like Airachnid was questioning her actions, Matilda had to question Airachnid's. Was she acting on her own, or doing this at the behest of another--of her kind? Either way it was difficult for her to understand why someone would want to exterminate an entire planet.

In the end she supposed it mattered little. Airachnid had made very clear what her intentions are, and that meant Matilda had to try and do what she could. The spider Cybertronian would be receiving the tears she wished for but they wouldn't be so much out of fear or despair as it was anger and frustration.

She took one step back, pressing a hand to the tree behind her and concentrated on it. Matilda had never really had much opportunity to test the limits of her abilities so she just had to pray and hope that she would be capable of doing this.

Turned out, it was much easier than Matilda had expected. When she put all her willpower into lifting up the tree, it was torn from the ground, roots ripping from the earth with a loud cracking noise. So surprised was she that she felt backwards, nearly tumbling into the hole where it once stood. The surprise lasted for only a moment, however, and that was when she swung the tree at Airachnid as if it were a bug swatter.

Airachnid began advancing again, ready to maim Matilda a little bit and really get the despair flowing – when the tree behind Matilda was ripped right out of the ground.

The sight was such that Airachnid didn't even know how to react. She was usually prepared for the situations she encountered, but trees lifting themselves out of the earth was frankly unbelievable. She stared at the tree, and then at Matilda. How...?

She realized, as the tree came at her, that this was somehow Matilda's doing.

"N––" she began to yell, but she was cut off by the large tree making impact with her body. She felt a crunch where the tree hit, and that pain was soon supplemented by the pain of crashing through several other trees and skidding across the ground to make a final impact against yet another tree. She couldn't move. She couldn't assess the damage. She could only think, through the full-body agony of all that blunt-force tree trauma, She will pay.

When she realize what she had done Matilda was once again shocked with herself.

That anger and frustration that had been at a boiling point seconds ago almost immediately receded and she dropped the tree in front of her.

There was a flash of guilt before reason came back to her. She had defended herself, and hopefully this would make Airachnid think twice about trying to harm Earth or any other human.

For now, however, Matilda wasn't going to try and instigate anything else. This was no place to make a home with someone like Airachnid around. With just one wary look in the direction she had gone flying, Matilda took to the air, getting out of there as quickly as she could, wiping her face free of the tears that had spilled earlier.

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