Work Text:
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What a peaceful night at Brookhollow Park. The crickets were chirping in the garden, the bees were sleeping and buzzing with their cute snores. And the lampposts were online. All in all, a nice place to be.
“(Heavy breathing)”
That is…
“####, ####, ####, ####-“
Unless you are the size of an insect, specifically an ant.
“(AGGRESSIVE CHITTERING)”
And a large and aggressive stinging scorpion is chasing you.
With a leap of faith, the Ominent worker jumped over a trench (though at normal size, it would just be a crack). The scorpion, being vertically challenged and incapable of jumping high, was forced to go around, letting the Ominent worker escape.
“That was close.”
It has been 3 days since the Mysterious Stranger took over the park. Here, in the area above the playground (relative to the entrance), the Ominent worker had been avoiding her O.R.C. controlled creatures, but it likely wouldn’t last long. The Mysterious Stranger seemed to be focusing her efforts on defending the facilities across the park, and with the nearby lab in the playground being patrolled by O.R.C. Antlions, the worker has had to defend and flee from steroid Larva.
Oh, and speaking of Larva, those Ladybird Larva are murderous. Super persistent, those things, and they burn you when they chomp down on you. Super painful. The adult Ladybirds weren’t much better, but at least they were slow.
And then there were the Northern Scorpions.
Pulling up his notes, the Ominent worker looked over a big section of his notes by the name of “#### SCORPIONS”.
Those things were everywhere. Very tanky, very damaging, they could smell and track you down, and not only that, but they enjoyed attacking in groups, because they often converged onto their targets until you had multiple scorpions slicing and stabbing you to death.
The Ominent worker knew that the vast majority of the Northern Scorpion population was in and around the tipped over ice cream cart, but there were still many around this area. It’s almost like they knew that he was here beforehand… but that couldn’t be right… right?
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THE HUMAN GOES BACK TO HIS HOME, THINKING HE IS SAFE. WHAT A JOKE. HE THINKS THAT WE NEVER KNEW HE WAS HERE, THAT WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT HIS PLANS AND WHAT HE IS WRITING ABOUT US.
HE ESCAPED ME EARLIER. JUMPED OVER A TRENCH. UNFORTUNATELY, MY LEGS DON’T GIVE ME MUCH JUMPING POWER.
NOT THAT IT MATTERS. HE WILL DIE IN THE END, JUST LIKE ALL OF HIS COLLEAGUES.
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It has been 5 days since the Mysterious Stranger took over the park.
The Ominent worker had been hard at work, constructing defenses for his base. They weren’t good defenses, but literally anything would be better than nothing. Especially with the local Earwigs thinking of paying him a visit soon.
The Ominent worker swore that the Earwigs were planning something against him. It felt like they were following him. But as the man was going over to the nearby Black Widow den to gather silk (it was the only nearby source of silk), he thought about how at the very least, the Earwigs weren’t as persistent as—
(SLASH)
—the… Scorpions.
The Ominent worker dove behind a nearby rock as he watched a Whipper Earwig be decapitated by an adult Scorpion as it was being pinned down by younger Scorplings.
“Why are they here? They’ve never come to this area before!”
Indeed, the Scorpions, for all their persistence, had never been in this area to his knowledge. Why were they here now?
He didn’t have much time to think as the adult Scorpion immediately looked over at him and stridulated its claws menacingly.
The Ominent worker ran for his life.
(AGGRESSIVE CHITTERING)
The Scorpion chased him down, cutting down blades of grass as it pursued.
“Not this again—” (SLASH)
With a rapid burst of speed, the burrowing menace slashed directly at the Ominent worker, almost cutting off his nose in the process.
“Oh ####.”
(CHITTER) With an almost taunting wave of its claw, the Scorpion got into a defensive stance. With that, the Ominent worker got out the Ladybird Larva spear he had made. Hopefully, it would help him kill this thing.
Sadly, the Ominent worker was not a skilled fighter, and he just kept hitting the Scorpion’s defensively raised claws, doing minimal damage.
…
(Cricket Chirps) (Cricket Chirps) (Cricket Chirps)
Both the worker and the Scorpion looked at the Cricket that was chirping, causing it to jump away.
(ANNOYED CHITTERING) ????????? (CONFUSED CHITTERING)
With a look back, the Ominent worker ran away, escaping the Scorpion.
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HE THINKS THAT HE HAS EVADED ME. BUT LITTLE DOES HE KNOW, I PLANNED THAT INTERACTION DOWN TO THE FINEST DETAIL. THE CRICKET, THE ESCAPE, THE DECAPITATED EARWIG, ALL A SHOW OF HOW FUTILE HIS ATTEMPTS TO SURVIVE ARE.
FOR YEARS, HE HAS TOWERED ABOVE US. BUT NOW, HE IS AT OUR SIZE. HE IS IN OUR PLAYING FIELD. FRAGILE, WEAK, WITH NOTHING TO FALL UPON BUT HIS TOOLS.
RUN WHILE YOU CAN, NAMELESS OMINENT WORKER. WE WILL BE WAITING FOR YOU.
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It has been 2 weeks since the Mysterious Stranger took over the park.
The Ominent worker had finally gotten up some defenses. And just in time, too. From what he knew, those Earwigs were coming to destroy him soon.
He got in the bunker he made, got out his bow, and waited.
…and waited.
…and waited.
After 4 hours of waiting, the Ominent worker wondered where the heck these Earwigs were.
He went out of his bunker, wandered around a bit, and then—
(SLASH)
He saw another Earwig decapitation by a Northern Scorpion… a decapitation in a field of decapitated Earwig bodies and more Scorpions.
“What in the—”
(MALICIOUS STARE)
“OH ####.”
The Ominent worker ran, the Scorpions hunting him down.
"What the heck is going on?! I thought the Scorpions were a solitary species!"
He got to his bunker, picked up his bow, and tried to shoot the Scorpions in their stingers. But a Sprig Bow wasn’t going to do much against 10 adult Northern Scorpions.
(PEW) (PEW) (PEW)
Now, that wasn’t the actual sound the Sprig Bow made, but it does give an idea as to how effective the Sprig Bow was at stopping the tide of burrowing menaces.
With a single cut, the leading Scorpion tore open the bunker, before stabbing down with its stinger, hitting the Ominent worker directly.
“####! I’ve been poisoned! I need to get out of here.”
Going through the backdoor, the Ominent worker ran out of the now useless bunker to get to his base. He knew that his time here was up, he needed to evacuate.
Throwing open the door to his base, the Ominent worker drank a Soothing Syrup to heal, before grabbing food, water, weapons, and other things that he knew that he would need to survive, before fleeing. Where was he going? No idea, so long as it didn’t have Scorpions. It was really unfortunate that he wasn’t part of the Taming Program, because a Red Soldier Ant or Orb Weaver or Cockroach or literally anything would have been a good ally in this situation.
(RUNNING) (RUNNING) (RUNNING)
Wait, there was actually one area that he knew probably didn’t have any Scorpions.
It was a place of water and Diving Bell Spiders.
The Pond.
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HE THINKS THAT HE CAN ESCAPE FROM US. HE THINKS THAT HIS PUNY LEGS CAN CARRY HIM TO A SAFE PLACE. HE THINKS THAT WE ARE FOOLS. WELL, JOKES ON HiM, BECAUSE WE KNOW EXACTLY WHERE HE’S GOING.
HE LIKELY SEEKS A PLACE WITHOUT OUR KIND, SO HE WILL GO TO THE ONLY PLACE WHERE HE IS SURE THAT WE WON’T BE. YES, THAT’S CORRECT. THE PLACE OF WATER AND DIVING BELL SPIDERS.
THE POND.
AND WE WILL INTERCEPT HIM. AFTER ALL, I WOULD MUCH RATHER NOT HAVE TO RISK DROWNING.
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The Ominent worker was moving towards the Pond. It was likely the only place where he would be safe from the Scorpions. He was pretty sure that they couldn’t swim after all.
Water wouldn’t be a concern, he could just make some Dew Collectors. And food also wouldn’t be an issue, he could kill Tadpoles for their meat, collect Algae, or grow Mushrooms to store and eat. But if he wanted to make his base, and never have to return to land ever again, then he was going to need more resources than the ones he had with him.
Luckily, he knew that there were some Orb Weavers nearby, so he could get Spider Silk from there. He would start with that.
2 Hours of Resource Gathering Later…
Finally, he had everything. Well, excluding the planks and stems for the walls and roof, but he could work on that separately. What he needed to do right now was make the foundations for his base, make all the stations and a bed, and then he could start making it nicer.
He was also really glad that the Venom from that Northern Scorpion sting had finally let up. Those Teens would probably be able to shrug it off in a couple seconds with their prior experience with being shrunken and their strong teenage immune systems, but he was neither a teenager, nor a past shrunken person.
Huh… speaking of the Teens, he wondered where they were right now. If they had been shrunken again, maybe he could work with them to survive.
Anyway, if he was correct, the Pond was home to Ominent’s Secret Science Division’s primary lab… Which was probably filled with O.R.C. Creatures. But he would take them over the Northern Scorpions any day of the week. Plus, he wasn’t going to be entering the lab, at least not yet.
Though as the Ominent worker went over to the Pond so he could build his base, he heard… something. Something that sounded like deep, unsettling chittering, almost like a Scorpion— OH— (JUMP STAB)
With a sudden burst from the ground, a Scorpion came up from underneath him and stabbed at him, an attack which he just barely dodged.
“NOT AGAIN!”
(SLASH) (SLASH)
As if on cue, Scorpions of all different ages came out of the ground and started running at the Ominent worker.
“How did they find me?! I specifically wasted time by going to random areas so they couldn’t track me down!”
And so began a cacophony of slashing and stabbing as the Scorpions tried to attack the Ominent worker, though there were so many of them… that they struggled to aim properly, and often hit other Scorpions by mistake.
(CHITTER OF REALIZATION)
(GASP) “They made a mistake! They brought too many Scorpions! I can use this.”
Taking a breath, the Ominent worker ducked and weaved through the Scorpions, using their confusion at their inability to hit their target to move past them.
(ANGERED CHITTERING)
The Ominent worker ran, the Scorpions right behind him and coming in for the kill. That trick probably wouldn’t work twice.
But it didn’t need to, the Pond was right up ahead. And with a leap of faith, the Ominent worker jumped into the Pond, swimming away from the Scorpions, who were very angry.
“That was close. But at the very least, they shouldn’t be able to get me now.”
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…Ok, that was a mistake on my part.
BUT IT DOES NOT MATTER. THE OMINENT WORKER MAY THINK HIMSELF SAFE, BUT LITTLE DOES HE KNOW, WE HAVE USED DATA FROM THEIR TAMING PROGRAM TO TAME WATER BOATMEN. SOON, WE WILL AMBUSH HIM IN HIS SLEEP, BUT NOT BEFORE WE GIVE HIM A QUICK REALITY CHECK.
IT’S TIME TO SHOW HIM MY TESTAMENT.
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The Ominent worker was safe now. His base was far away from the Scorpions. They couldn’t attack him now.
But why did he still feel so unsafe? He knew that the Scorpions couldn’t get to him. They couldn’t swim! At all!
Though they could be underwater for a fair amount of time before having to come up to breathe… But that doesn’t matter! They still couldn’t swim, and he was at the surface of the pond, far away from anything that could let the Scorpions get close to his base.
So, he should be perfectly fine— is that a sheet of paper?
A sheet of paper was innocently lying on the Ominent worker’s Workbench. But it definitely wasn’t there before.
Slowly, the Ominent worker went over to read the paper, and what he saw was… unsettling.
It spoke of a human who believed himself to be safe, who after existing as a giant for so long, was now on the playing field of the writer.
It spoke of how the human would die just like all his colleagues; it spoke… it spoke of himself. Of how he was in big danger, as the Scorpions were coming on Water Boatmen.
“WAIT, WHAT—” (STAB)
Out of nowhere, the stinger of a Scorpion shot through the Buoyant Foundations of the Ominent worker’s base, piercing straight through his chest.
His vision faded as Scorpions on Water Boatmen rose from the water and got onto his base. With his final breath, one of the Scorpions took the paper from his hand… and chittered in a matter similar to laughter.
Everything faded to black, as the Ominent worker fell into a sleep he would never wake from.
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IT IS THE END.
THE OMINENT WORKER HAS DIED, PIERCED THROUGH THE CHEST BY THE STINGER OF YOURS TRULY.
NOW, THE ONLY HUMANS REMAINING IN THE PARK ARE THAT WEIRDO WITH THE MIND-CONTROLLED ARMY WHO CAUSED THIS MESS, AND THE FOUR TEENAGERS IN THAT ONBOARDING FACILITY.
BUT THEY WILL ALL DIE IN TIME. I WILL LEAD MY FORCES TO KILL THEM ALL. THIS, I VOW—----------------------------------------------
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A paper washed onto the shore of the Pond, followed by the exploded corpses of Scorpions, and the remnants of a miniaturized person’s base.
What happened, exactly?
Some idiot threw a particularly explosive firecracker over the wall of the park, and it landed in the Pond, where it exploded, killing all the Scorpions and exploding the base.
At least the paper was fine though.
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The End
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