Information

Xritra has a minion!

Salticid the Green Jumping Spider

Xritra

The

Custom Common Experiment #585
Owner:

Hyena

Age: 12 years, 4 days

Born: April 15th, 2012

Adopted: 10 years, 9 months, 5 days ago

Adopted: July 14th, 2013

Pet Spotlight Winner
November 5th, 2014

Statistics

Level: 2
Strength: 11
Defense: 13
Speed: 10
Health: 11
HP: 11/11
Intelligence: 15
Books Read: 15
Food Eaten: 0
Job: Store Clerk

The lab is something like a greenhouse, but you've never seen a greenhouse with this many spiders in it.

Also, one of them is wearing a lab coat.

The aforementioned arthropod scuttles cheerfully towards you, clipboard in hand (er, claw? Appendage?).

Sssstkffssshns! she says, in a voice composed mainly of whistling and clicking sounds.

You frown. "Pardon?"

The scientist raises a claw in the universal sign of sorry, just a moment and reaches into her pocket. She brings out a small gadget, pops it somewhere under her fangs, adjusts it...

fzzzzrrtttzz "Testing, testing?" she says in a weirdly distorted, but much clearer voice.

You nod cautiously.

"Ahem. Yes. 'Salutations' was what I said. Sorry about that. Forgot I wasn't wearing this thing. My name is Xritra, by the way. I mean. More or less."

You introduce yourself and inquire politely as to what "this thing" is.

"Ah! Voice processor, tuned to make my English understandable to native speakers. My people don't really have the proper anatomy to speak your language," she adds, gesturing vaguely at her puzzling mouthparts.

Huh. Clever device.

"So you know Vanadium, right? He mentioned that he had a friend who might like a tour of my lab if they were ever on Atebus," she says.

You smile. "That's me. He said you were an arachnologist, right?" You had known that there must be biologists who study spiders, but you had never heard that word before. Xritra nods animatedly.

"Yes! I became very interested in theories of cross-planet speciation and/or convergent evolution when I first learned about the arthropod biota of your planet. As you can see, I'm not from around here, but my people share some physical traits with the many species you call spiders," she says, gesturing again at her fangs and row of small eye, "especially those of the order salticidae, which you may know as jumping spiders."

You gape at her. "Are you saying that spiders are aliens??"

Xritra chuckles at your astonishment, a sound that evokes the image of a small vacuum cleaner full of pebbles. "Well, maybe. That's what I hope to find out. Either we share a common ancestor from one planet or the other, or our species simply evolved in similar circumstances. It could even be that one evolved from the other and hopped planets then! In any case, I've found that jumping spiders display impressive intelligence that already sets them apart from the planet's other arthropod species. Would you like to see the ones I've been working with here? I think they're adorable, myself. They remind me so much of my little sisters when they first hatched."

Your curiosity thoroughly piqued, you agree and follow Xritra back towards the lush green terrariums lining the lab. Spiders have just become a lot more interesting. And apparently very friendly, too.

Credits
Overlay by

krys
Story and character by me.