Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Over there, be careful!” Ruk pointed to a ramshackle old shed about ten metres away. The doors were thrust open and a dozen gardeners were jostling for position to rifle through piles of rusty materials inside.

Light made a noise like a saucepan bubbling over at the thought of being involved in a plot.

“Ok! But what does the Tindrel want?”

“I shall a-c-company you to ensure your protection and a satisfactory selection.” Pclendafuun squelched across the grass to his side.

“Alright, let's go!” Light patted the Tindrel’s faceplate tentatively before wobbling quickly towards a terminal. The QV’s old suit provided a gait approximate to a very intoxicated biped to blend into the flurry of activity. The Tindrel followed so close behind as to be actually touching.

“Ok Senny, I need your help to prepare this soil for a strange mixture of plants. Take some of my homebrew and mix it EVENLY into this area here. Then we need to create a basin in the middle for Light’s horrible grabber to seed from, coating it completely in the stuff Pclenda threw back up, ok?”

Ruk knelt down with an auto-trowel before recoiling as a small shower of tiny seed pods tickled her beak and clinked off Senjen’s head from above. She looked up to find a tiny drone whizzing to the next patch.

“Hey! Alright, do all that while also getting rid of those seeds!”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Pclendafuun responded to Senjen before Ruknar could even blink.

“Aesthetics and artistic message are considered by the J-J-judges when scoring entries.” He seemed more confident now.

“Ooh, I wonder if they have any Grabglove spores - they like grabbing fish that clean their scales on spinereef. Maybe it will like these…rose thorns ” Light wasn’t an avid gardener, but had very fond memories of Grabglove from his infancy. He used to play around the deep spine reefs with shoals of other juveniles. They’d flit in and out of range of the grab glove arms, delighting when they would snatch at their tails with their brightly covered ‘mouth’ flower.

“G-g-grabglove is statistically uncommon in this tournament - that may play well w-with the judges if it grows properly.” Pclendafuun offered helpfully.

“Ok, ok, what could I grow?” Ruk raked the moist, loamy soil with one taloned foot.

“Ooh, what about Creeech? Its smell is so potent that it can make you pass out!”

“An interesting c-choice!” The Tindrel chittered. “Creeech developed symbiotically with scavengers who would eat the sleeping prey, leaving some of the flesh at the base of the plant as an offering.”

“Thats right, buddy!” Ruk clicked.

“We have a special announcement. Mokhtar Brobdingh AgriKem have just sponsored this round, offering 50% off their BioBurst range to any gardener who successfully seeds an unwanted companion in another team’s patch. The round starts in ten seconds. Good luck!”

“Hmmm.” Light cast a suspicious eye around as a wave of murmuring rippled across the dozens of patches around them. Teams of all sizes conversed urgent together.

“What is BioBurst?”

“It kills plants. Useful for next round.” Pclendafuun chirped.

A klaxon sounded, and it seemed like every single gardener under the giant shrub that day rushed to one of the dozen terminals placed strategically around the allotments.

Halo: Edge of Midnight

I don't have much time to spare but am very interested in making a character!

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Hold the reef a moment…aren’t I the team leader, since we’re celebrating me?” Light ventured.

“Do you know what we’re doing?” Ruk asked simply, hitting perfect contrapposto from the opposite side of a large raised patch of soil.

“...No…” QV weren’t very facially expressive beings, owing to their evolution in near total darkness. But Light pushed the boundaries of what it meant for a fish to pout. His colours were simpatico.

“Ok, shall i show you the ropes on this one?”

“...Yes…”

“Alright then. Listen up everybody, please.” The Tekeri gestured to the three metre square of ground they had gathered around.

“Here is our patch - we can’t plant anything outside of this square. Round one requires us to grow four plants at once so we’re gonna need you to tend one of them, Senny. Since Jess is our master builder this time, I’d recommend you pick a nice, sociable Human plant.”

“How can we grow plants with no spores?” Light asked.

“Ahh, now here is where it gets expensive. Those vending machines sell seeds for most every type of flora in the known galaxy.” She pointed to a holo pad mounted on a thick base with a little door and container underneath about thirty metres away. “They sell gardening accessories, growing media, the works too.”

“It seems quite unfair for those patches to be so close to it.” Light regarded the robed horticulturalists on the patches next to it.

“They’re probably members. Figures. We should go check it out; make our choices.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light undulated inside his suit, colours of amusement sliding down his body.

“Perhaps this old drifter has grown jaded and senile in his old a–ah, I see.” He was regarding the Tindrel with colours of mild displeasure.

“Wait for it…” Ruk, both wings slightly raised towards Pclendafuun in anticipation.
His diminutive exoskeleton rocked with a series of powerful coughs. Small trails of slime dribbled from four vents on his undercarriage and his maw opened back up. A long and dextrous tongue-trunk. It was purple-pink with the texture of volcanic rock, sporting three prehensile folds at the end. From one of the two holes at the end, a thick red sludge poured back into the baggie.

“Well…what do you think?” Ruk asked.

“T-t-the media is of a high quality.” Pclendafuun wittered.

“Excellent! I like this one already!” The Tekeri cawed.

“I have just added some of my own minerals t-t-to the mix. It s-s-should improve waterborne performance.”

“Attention contestants!” A voice called over an crackly tannoy system.

“The first round will begin shortly. Please find your match and head to the associated patch. Thank you.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“I can’t say I share your enthusiasm for seeing a ball that's too bright.”Light shivered. “But now we’re out of contract with FGC…We might be able to pick up work ferrying materials to the new starshell they’re building around Trieste VI. Then we can get paid to see one rather than be ripped off by the tour operator!” He steepled a few tentacles together, pleased with his great idea.

“Not won, n-n-nnno. They d-d-don’t like the idea of t-t-t-t-This One being a ggggardener.” Pclendafuun suggested. They wore a harness with four delicate machine arms to provide fine motor ability. Draped over their thorax was a kind of pannier with many pockets.

“Hhhhello, everyone. I would n-n-n-ot be able to say for s-s-ure without a close inspection.” The Tindrel eyed up Ruk’s bag of soil curiously.

“If I give this bag to you, are you going to do the eating thing?” the Tekeri asked.

“Probably.”

“Perfect…fine. Here you go, master gardener.” Ruk chucked the bag over and Pclendafuun carefully decanted the entire thing into his mouth before chewing vigorously.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“I decline your typical Human wager, because I know you will. Waste of money.” Ruk chocked her beak and activated the auto-straw again, draining the shell.

The Tekeri then fixed Senjen with a heavy stare which would only be possible with totally black eyes. Subtle, fast movements of her head were the only sign that she was listening closely to everything he said. Not just verbally, but via his body language and accounting for all the other disclosures he’d made. Tekeri were generally fantastic at remembering little details.

“Ahh, yes. I can see why you feel that way, but please don’t rule out the gloom. Dusk for example, is very underrated. The stars hide all but the most exquisite detailing. It unlocks the mind to paint in the blanks between shadows.

The Tindrel came and crouched down very close to Senjen. “Hello?” Light said, speculatively.

“Hhhhello. Hhhahve you competed before?”

“No, have you?”

“Yyes! Thirty four times.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Hey! I like plants, just not how much they cost. When you’re a company director you can have a forest, ok?” Light wailed.

"We’ll need a support structure, but you’ll have to be quick on your feet. This stuff won’t hang around. Or will it?” Ruk flicked some red soil from her baggie at Jess’s face. Her beak made the most magnificent *CLICK* by way of laughter.

“There’ll be some basic click-and-go, but any scrap you have down your pants will come in useful.” The Tekeri medic was sounding unusually rambunctious right now. Perhaps it was the fact that she was back in her element after so long. She looked at Senjen when he asked her about the light.

“I have lenses in. Also I take drugs. Does it feel nice to you?”

The Tindrel jerked back when they were addressed.

“N-n-nnnnno, I mean yes. Ttttthaatt is my name. Hello.” They took a few clacks forward. Their forward leg plates were mottled yellow, stained brown at the bottom with fresh earth. Their face plate was more grey, and scored dozens of times in ritual punishment.

“I hhhheard you needed This One for your team. Hhhhere i am.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Ok…” Ruk plonked herself down on the ground nearby. She somehow had a halved shell full of liquid and a cane straw sticking out in one hand.

“The aim of the game is to grow the biggest, most impressive plant. Extra points are given for our ‘form’ while doing it - basically how controlled, or not, we look. Finally, the longer the plant is judged to be able to survive on its own following the competition, the bigger our multiplier."

The Tekeri took a giant slurp from the shell.

“The catch is that you have to do it using a companion structure. Four complimentary plants that benefit each other when grown together in certain ways. And they’re asking for each of these four plants to be native to the different sentient species here in Setia…Sorry he missed you off.” She ended sheepishly, patting Senjen.

“I don’t know many Vosher plants that grow outside of water…” Light complained, staring around at the shrub canopy all around.

“Hence my special homebrew.” Ruk shook the bag of red soil. “It will hopefully help us make a small pool of water on our patch to grow some of your kelp.”

A small Tindrel was watching Ruknar curiously from a few paces away as she spoke.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Terrific. I will pencil you in as a five, though that will of course impact your scoring…” The official did not elaborate further.

“I’ll need a quarter million Veruhn from each of you to enter the competition.” This equated to about half a day’s wages for a dockhand, so not cheap. “Current first prize is twenty five million Veruhn.”

“Eesh, steep.” Light muttered, before sending his share to Senjen. He also wasn’t feeling optimistic about winning.

“Is outside custom growing media allowed?” Ruknar asked, pulling a small bag of red soil from her red knapsack and dangling it in the other Tekeri’s face. He examined it closely, before making a small rip in the side and tasting some from the material that came out onto his talon.

“I’ll allow it, but I’ll have to charge you for repurifying the patches afterwards.”

“With any luck, I can do that out of our winnings.” The official merely chuckled and tapped his holopad.

“Best of luck. I'll send Pclendafuun your way if i can find him, then I’ll call you up when its your turn - feel free to mingle until then. Do you have a team name?”