Mission Beta

[baedalites.livejournal.com]

Who: List forthcoming.
What: Going to get a queen ant!
Where: ...in a hive.
When: NOW. This thread will likely cover a few days.
Notes: The basket contains a blanket and fresh and perfectly edible stuff; sandwiches, a stack of wrapped pancakes, syrup, sugar cubes, random assortment of sweet candy, two bottles of sweet blue lemonade.
Warnings: To be updated.

Dear Beta Mission,

So. Large social arthropods and we are going after their queen. We got all of those houses checked and the royalty was in another castle every time. Leaves us (or rather you) with only one option: GOING UNDERGROUND. Thousands of people have done it before you so it should be simple enough! But just in case and just because you are so very dear to our hearts, your gods have decided to grant you some simple boons to help you on your way. You will get:

Glow Sticks - Do you folks like chemiluminescence? Well now you can have 200 sticks of single use biodegradable tubes worth of it! Break it and shake it, it will light up any deep dark tunnel of your choice.

A Magical Compass - Actually I don't know if it's magical or just really scientific but when you're lost somewhere deep underground and you want to know the way out it really doesn't matter does it? What you do is you tell it where you want to go, and it points in that direction. Talk about useful.

A Crate With a Tarp - The very latest in ant queen kidnapping technology!

A Picnic Basket - Well you are out hunting ants, aren't you.

It's hard but not that hard to track the ants down to their original brooding nest. Keen tracking skills or magic should do it. The best entrance lies inside the old subterranean Karsten and Pierce's Mushroom Farm just outside the City. The ants in this nest do not appear to be afflicted by the illness of their sisters on the surface.

It's perfectly dark down in these tunnels, and it smells of mold and formic acid. It's also quiet, or would be if it wasn't for the constant scratching and static tittering of worker ants milling up and down with food and building materials in their mandibles. Much like the ants in the houses, they will not mind intruders as long as the intruders are on their best behaviour. The queen is likely to be in the brooding chamber, surrounded by eggs (some of which may be queen eggs) and workers. She's also likely to be huge and ill disposed to being moved.

Comments

Tracking Down the Nest

[hehaseatenthepancake]

Once everyone got their stuff together, the team heads back out onto the city streets. After getting their bearings, Hellboy pauses and makes sure the crate is securely held on his right shoulder, his massive stone hand cradling the opposite edge. He then uses his left hand to draw a cigarette and light it with a quickness and efficiency that speaks to how long he's been used to only having one hand for delicate operations.

"Okay," he says around his cigarette, gesturing at the crate with his head. "I got this thing, so someone else is gonna have to handle the tracking for now. Find us an ant, get us going in the right direction."

Tracking Down the Nest

[oenomelic.livejournal.com]

Meg gives a sloppy little salute and bright grin (she seems wholly comfortable, even personable, in these situations, but no less genuinely professional).

"I'm on it, chief. I'll scout up ahead and move back. If anybody is coming with me, now would be the time." And forward she goes--not by a great deal, but she moves quickly (faster than it is at all normal), and her eyes are very, very sharp. She sees things that have been disturbed by the ants' size, the marks they leave on their surroundings, and where they might have claimed food or objects to bring back to the nest.