The Fuck Is That? [Catherine, Auerbach]

She was finally relieved to be done with that project she was pulled here to do! Ugh, she'd never quite done that sort of thing before, but it definitely was a learning process she'd be able to apply to something else. There was some time to kill before she'd go back home, and thus it was spent on a little... Expedition, away from that hideaway underground. Carefully, of course - the hollows here were big and powerful, and as much as she wanted to crack open every single one of these things, pick at their insides and learned how they ticked... It was more likely she'd get gobbled up.

Safari work it was, safari work she'd do. The notebook she brought along was quite fattened with notes, drawings, post-it notes, and other manners of information with the mere few hours she got to spend her, heart aflutter despite her headache... It'd been like, six days? She checked her phone - Yeah, six days since she last slept; no reception was here but she had basic time keeping down to merely recalling how many times it'd become six-thirty. Project took three or four to complete... Or well, she was sure it did. Testing her abilities or even trying to form a way through the Gargantua were visible but largely fruitless; oh well, she'd get it at some point, regardless of how the familiarity of this plane made her skin crawl.

Speaking of time, it was time for her next shot; hidden between a rock alcove on the surface of the sands, she'd calmly get her case of needles out, grasping one of the tiny syringes and assembling it with the strong yellowish fluid within... Damn, she was down to two. At least this little venture was almost done; going out to sea to get more of this shit was going to be annoying, slimy flat bastard was forgetting his place the last few times...

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The pain wracked Auerbach's spine, tip to tip as his head whipped side to side. It was close, he could tell; some part of him, but he couldn't tell where. It wasn't unusual for his parts to be hard to find. Usually some hollow would see something interesting and scurry away with it, and other times it seemed like they were hiding all on their own. If only he had the mind to wonder on that.

Instead, he scampered from dune to dune. Following what little guidance the pain in his back gave, up, down, left, right - a mess, when he was this close. Hard to discern. Maybe if he dug...

As Auerbach leaned down to the sands, his head jerked upwards, something new, something odd at the edges of his senses. Hollow, yes. But different. Maybe? His head turned at an unnatural angle, the nape of his neck folding over itself like paper. Staring directly behind himself, he saw the outcrop of rocks, or at least their edge. Poking out from the sands, under the glint of eternal moonlight.

With his head cracking back into place, the arrancar stepped lightly, slowly. Even in his care, the odd clink and thwack sounded from his body. Something he had grown accustomed to, ignorant of its volume. Standing atop the alcove, he shifted, hanging his head down and into the space, hair unfurling like unkempt spiderwebs. Auerbach's voice rang with an echo, as his eyes adjusted. "Hello-o-o-?"

...Aaannd in it goes. She'll never get used to that initial burn. A hiss of the teeth and reminding herself to keep her arm relaxed would get that venom flowing. Felt like her nerves were jumping; the twitchy sensation should go away in a few- What was that? She froze, hearing a strange noise get closer to her, like some kind of machinery or a rickety cart was coming by. That was an incredibly alien noise for an environment like this, her body screamed danger, her heart pounding as the sound drew closer.

Something was coming, something found her... She gripped her machete tightly, stanced and ready, using a pulse or two of Signal to get an idea of what was coming for her...

...It was, small? Didn't seem very strong...

That strange little 'hello' paired with the oddity hanging above her made her jump, a brief squeak in her throat as she stared above her with a look of surprise... Which withered into confusion. What the hell was she looking at? It was definitely humanoid, and definitely a hollow, but... It sure was the weirdest arrancar she'd ever seen. It looked like someone's patchwork doll more than an organic entity - a look that felt manufactured...

Her curiosity won out over her fear, the grip on the weapon that was fastened to the back of her waist loosening, but never releasing, "Uhm, hi? You... might wanna come down before something snatches you."

Sure her first instinct was to think this creature wasn't smart and this attempt at communication was some kind of childish echo, but it was worth a shot of testing it's language comprehension skills.

Auerbach blinked at the reply, attempting to make out its source. A woman? Not anyone he was familiar with - however few of those there were - but nonetheless nonthreatening. His head jerked up and backwards, another disorienting odd angle snapping at where a spine should be. Auerbach's eyes slid across the sky with scrutiny, as a hand held his hair in place. The joint bent backwards with meaty intonation, a man hitting pavement at uncomfortable speeds. "No! No big chiroptera"!

The arrancar's body re-contorted, head swiveling into the alcove with a wide grin plastered across. "Thank you! Big chiroptera are scary." With a hop, Auerbach dropped from the alcove's roof. Landing on all fours, where he'd stay. "They look scary." he attempted to clarify, scratching at his chin. "But mostly mean. Aggravation of the mind." The last words notably more well spoken, somehow.

"Are you hiding from one?" his head tilted with the question, panged with sincerity. All but having forgotten his original intent until another twinge of pain racked his spine. Blinking at the pain, he looked around the alcove, far more intently than before.

(*tl note: chiroptera is the scientific term for bat)

As if she needed any more indication he wasn't natural, that sickening contortion of the self just to look at the sky from such an odd angle, and the nonchalant remark of no... Bats? What a strangely specific way to refer to that, but it wasn't like she didn't spew her occasional scientific namings; least it confirmed it was capable of intelligent speech, albeit rather inconsistent... Whatever it was, it looked like a googly-eyed kid and not something up to eat her, and it held enough interest for her to want to get a closer, yet cautious, look.

Her eyes got a closer look at his body, her eyes definitely weren't fooling her; he looked like some poor lost doll someone threw out. She couldn't even think of any hollows that even close to resembled this naturally; most of them were either of a humanoid shape or took the shape of carnal beasts. He isn't quite what she'd call an Arrancar, either...

"Well, unless I want to get eaten by something bigger-" She was abruptly cut off by the little guy's reaction, raising a brow, "..What the hell's that about?"

The arrancar's nose twitched, his attention returning to the woman and her odd assortment of vials. They reminded him of something, briefly - and then it was gone, a lapse in the wind. Instead, Auerbach returned to focus on his pain, shoulder's scrunching together. "Not much bigger." He commented flatly, pressing towards the wall of the alcove, hands placed flatly.

"Looking!" he chirped in response, "Something is here. I can feel it." Fingers pushed against the stone, looking for any deformity in the surface. A crack, vein, something warped, he crawled against it flat, chest pressing close. Moments would pass, and Auerbach's fingers would slip into the darkness of the alcove, a slight wind at their tips. Excitement brimmed in his eyes, and pain wracked his back.

"Look! See!" His voice paraded around them, echoing once again as he pulled. The edges of his body sagged, pushing against each other as his hands flattened, arms concaving on themselves as the stone shifted. Pulling it back, he revealed a narrow staircase, peering down into the blackness. A ragged sound from within, faint, but unmistakable. With a smile, he turned to the woman, and jumped in with a fervor.

What a weird guy, at least he seemed capable of holding a conversation. She'd heard of weaker Arrancar being milder, but she'd assume something with such a seemingly low drive for predation would've been someone's snack by now. Given the effortless contorting of his body, she imagined there was something more to enable him to survive here... Well, he seemed plenty naive, shouldn't be too hard to crack into.

"..What do you mean 'something's here'?" His inspection of the wall told her enough, she was getting the sense him appearing here wasn't a coincidence... And he didn't seem eager for an idle chat with a random Fullbringer. Those spasms seemed related on top of it... She flinched up a bit when she heard the shifting of stone; so there was actually something there?

Calmly, she made a stride over to him, wordlessly assisting him in pushing the stone away... Yep that was a staircase alright, and given his joyful hopping there was something he valued at the bottom.

"Well, let's go get it..." She'd casually gesture him to go first, "..Eh, Got a name?"

The stairwell flashed beneath Auerbach's gait, taking an unknown amount of steps at a time. His eyes had already begun adjusting when he entered the alcove; now, all the more. Walls lined with little but their marks of creation, a chisel here, a pickaxe there, the stone was carved plainly, but carved nonetheless. Catherine's voice would manage to follow him from high above, the arrancar pausing to reply as he reached what he assumed to be the bottom of the stairs.

"Auerbach Granz!" he gave his name with cheer, voice unburdened by any particular association. His head swiveled quickly, lashing himself accidentally with hair. As the stairs ended, the stone opened up into a larger chamber, although still diminutive. It was odd, Auerbach thought. "Go through so much trouble, for something so small?" his voice would rattle back up the staircase, inattentive to the fact that he was speaking aloud.

Little more than a closet, the walls tunneled forward before an abrupt stop. Each was carved into with shelves, the majority of their contents ransacked or in states of disrepair. Broken vials, a scorch mark betraying something absent; an assortment of trials and tribulations reduced to knick knacks and discarded at leisure. Yet still, hidden away, in a facet of rock. Deep beneath the sands. Auerbach could feel it here, and he strained his eyes - staring, carefully looking.

There, tucked in the corner of one of the carved shelves, he saw it. A large jar, filled with the indescribable. Where the edges of reality peeled back to a pocket of space, shifting and distorting on top of itself. If it had a shape, it had long forgotten it. If it had a name, it was not labeled; but for the arrancar, it was everything. An involuntary squeal as Auerbach skipped towards the jar and its contents, smile bright even in the darkness.

Hardly one to sneeze before throwing into potential danger, huh? Well, if he's ahead then that means he's springing whatever traps or attracting nasties that she doesn't have to get jumped by, less energy for her. Space seemed enclosed, so her fullbring could be used, and if her hypothesizing of his ability to survive is correct, this little subject wouldn't die to her power.

In she went...

...To a place she didn't quite expect. Making sure she had the arrancar's signature close to her, she leisurely investigated her surroundings for anything valuable, taking notes with a degree of interest... Place looked looted to hell and heaven, might have been a den of research or knowledge that's been plucked. So annoying, but she was wondering how he even knew this was here. Didn't seem like his den or anything, he was searching at the rocks like he wasn't familiar with the entrance.

It wasn't long til the answer struck her, the joyful stride of Auerbach toward a strange jar.. Was that a body part of some kind? The distortions made it difficult to tell what it was, all she knew was that it wasn't something in her circle of knowledge yet.

"So that's what you're looking for..." She'd murmur, "What do you need that for?"

The arrancar's attention remained undivided as the woman made her way down to join him, eyes glued to the object in front of him. A child enamored with television, pressed too close to the screen. Auerbach would reach towards it with a reverence, bearing through the rapid firing of his synapses.

As Auerbach's hands encircled the jar, it's contents sang to him. His skin felt like a thousand drums, pain overflowing into another sensation, indescribable. His expression shifted, the smile closing to pursed lips as hands scrambled to the lid. Pushing it tight against his chest, fingers pushed in against the lid - and with a sigh of air, it opened. He sniffed the contents, careful to keep the jar upright. Cautiously, he pulled back, and slid a finger inside, inching, inching to the edge of collapsed reality.

The smell of burning, the sound of cracking air. A moment of hesitation, and he plunged his finger into the shape.

It bulged, roiled, unsure of who or where it belonged; and within that moment of indecision, suddenly dissapeared. No fanfare, no sound, no light. From one place, to another. Auerbach felt something inside him shift, and the overwhelming feeling that had filled him dissapeared. His hands released the jar, crashing into a parade of shards as he stood still, a statue staring into nothing. It'd be seconds before he spoke, voice cracking. "I- I think..."

Auerbach slid a hand across his chest, eyes darting across the far wall as his brain raced. "That was a lung." And, as if to agree, he coughed.