Star
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Jul 22, 2022 22:51:25 GMT -6
Post by Star on Jul 22, 2022 22:51:25 GMT -6
I brushed away the light with a wave of my claw and reached out again to touch Ingway’s claw this time. Before I had been touching him on the head or back, never on the claw, but the claw was what he reached out with to interact. Was it more solid than the rest of him? There was only one way to find out.
I was pleased to find that Ingway allowed me to touch his claw, given how he reacted when I tried to reach out for his horns before. He looked down at our two claws, occupying the same space, and made a strange sound. I pulled away again, thinking that the sound was his way of saying he didn’t appreciate it. However, to my surprise, he lifted his claw in response.
It was like he wanted to meet me halfway. Not wanting to disappoint him, I touched the tip of my claws to his, and for a moment I felt resistance.
[18, 3.6]
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Star
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Jul 22, 2022 22:52:19 GMT -6
Post by Star on Jul 22, 2022 22:52:19 GMT -6
I yanked my claw back away again, surprised by what I had felt. It didn’t hurt, but the sudden change in experience startled me. I felt silly for not keeping my composure, but I’m not sure that Ingway was bothered by that.
“This gives me an idea,” I said aloud. I rustled around in my bag and pulled out some objects I had brought from my hoard. They ranged from gemstones, decorative objects, and even plants and large insect I liked to keep around for teaching hunting. I set the range of interesting objects down in front of Ingway and waited.
And waited. He didn’t seem to know what to do with them. Perhaps I had jumped too far ahead. I tapped on the stone with my claws, making a clicking sound. “Like this,” I said. Click click. Then I tapped on a bit of carved wood. Thunk thunk.
[18.1, 3.8]
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Star
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Jul 22, 2022 22:53:32 GMT -6
Post by Star on Jul 22, 2022 22:53:32 GMT -6
One after another I tapped on the objects, hoping that Ingway would eventually figure out what I meant. Again I was surprised by his reaction, as he didn’t go for the shining gem, the beautifully carved wood, or even the lovely live flower in a pot, but the ugly insect in a cage.
His claws swept straight through the cage and into the exoskeleton of the insect. I was very shocked to see that it rolled over dead as if it had been cut by a knife, even though it looked to me like his claws went right through it.
Ingway looked up at me as if he was awaiting further instruction, but I wasn’t too sure how to react. I felt a little bad for the little insect I had trapped, though I didn't think it had suffered much. Even though I had brought it along as bait for chasing, it was so surprising to me that it died. I guess I really underestimated Ingway after all.
[18.2, 4]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:06:56 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:06:56 GMT -6
By all means, the creature before me appeared to be nothing but a useless blob of slime. It was an unusual thing with a collection of odd features. It shined slightly in the light, indicating that it was made up of some variety of metal. Like most metals, it was cold to the touch, but I preferred not to let it touch me. The sensation was as unpleasant as one could expect from looking at it. Though it at first seemed to be a pile of inanimate goo, it was in fact a sort of living creature. It was alive, at least in the sense that it could move and react to stimuli. It moved constantly in an subtly unnerving way. I had met a wide variety of unusual creatures in my day, but this one stood out as particularly strange. Even compared to an elemental golem seedling, its amorphous anatomy was uniquely weird. [20.1, 0.2]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:07:14 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:07:14 GMT -6
I decided to call him Mercury, since he reminded me of a ball of liquid mercury constantly melting in the warmth of the sun. I wanted to learn more about him and his capabilities, so I packed all of the accessories I got from the Tinkerer’s shop and headed toward the public park. It was best to do this kind of experimenting in the park rather than in my own lair, as I had quickly learned that some creatures had unexpected and destructive abilities.
Mercury seemed harmless, but he might still show me something interesting yet. I could see him straining to look at our surroundings as we traveled, indicating that he was at least minimally curious about the world around him. That was a great sign, since curious creatures were easier to raise. Nothing was more difficult to work with than a creature that would not even pay attention to its surroundings.
[20.2, 0.4]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:08:13 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:08:13 GMT -6
I found a quiet place within the park next to a tall tree and an old stump. I tilted my claws forward, allowing Mercury to roll off of my claws and land gently on the stump. He quickly adjusted his shape so that he could watch me, and the feeling was mutual. The two of us were still for a moment as we observed one another. Though he had not left anything behind, I rubbed my claws against the grass in an attempt to forget the sensation of his semi-liquid form against my scales. “I bought this for you,” I explained as I pulled a small object out of my bag. It was called a ‘thumb’, I assume because it is a similar size to a human finger. Humans liked to name things after themselves. I knew Mercury would not be able to express gratitude for this generous gift, so I simply assumed that he was pleased with my offering. [20.3, 0.6]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:09:29 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:09:29 GMT -6
Either way, he did not have much of a say in the matter. The Tinkerer’s assistant assured me that it was harmless despite its ominous name. Not the thumb part, but the soul part. I was still unsure why it was called 'thumb'. This little object was said to contain a soul, allowing a Living Liquid Steel like Mercury to feel a range of emotions - or at least to mimic them convincingly.
It came from a shop filled with robotic life, so I could assume that it was entirely artificial. If the eponymous soul was ‘real’ in any sense, then it was surely synthetic. My suspicion was that it was actually a clever trick of programming, and nothing resembling a soul was involved at all. Regardless of what the truth of the small yet expensive object was, I knew that a creature with (or pretending to have) emotions was easier to train than one who did not.
[20.4, 0.8]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:09:47 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:09:47 GMT -6
I rolled the drive around in my claw, pondering how it was meant to be applied. Mercury did not exactly have one of those little slots to plug things into. He was merely a squishy pile of moving metal. Well, if all of him was basically the same, then it should not matter where I put the drive. It felt very strange to do so, but I pressed the thumb-thing into the pile of metallic goo until it was fully consumed into the mass.
“How does it… feel?” I asked. Mercury looked up at me as I spoke, and in a way it appeared as though the divots where his eyes should be were softer than before. Was it really that simple?
There were no significant changes to Mercury’s appearance or demeanor, so I could only assume that he was fine. Whether the thumb-stick did as advertised or not remained to be seen. Regardless, I did not think I could get a refund now that it was stuck into Mercury’s body mass. For better or for worse, we were both stuck with the decision.
[20.5, 1]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:10:31 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:10:31 GMT -6
With one (somewhat) successful test out of the way, it was time to try another item’s effect on the pile of living metal. Though the creature itself was not too expensive, an entire suite of accessories quickly added up. Most of the items were merely pearlescent flat circles known as disks. Information was written onto the disk in a neat little spiral, so small that the eye could not perceive it. The disk was coated in a silvery film, giving it an opalescent sheen in the light. It was actually quite an attractive little object irrespective of its functionality. As with the previous item, Mercury did not have a clear place in its anatomy to insert the disk. It was completely amorphous and constantly changing at that. Figuring that the same approach should probably work twice, I simply shoved the disk into the goo and hoped for the best. It quickly formed its body around the disk, swallowing it the way a bug is swallowed by a frog. [20.6, 1.2]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:11:12 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:11:12 GMT -6
Suddenly, the chaos of the slime began to arrange itself, slowly shifting its form to include legs, a defined head, and even a tail. The sludgey metallic substance climbed over itself to form each part all at the same time. In just a moment it went from formless to looking like a proper creature with the appropriate number of parts one could expect from a vertebrate. I chose to observe this form first because it seemed to be the simplest of the possible options. It resembled a lizard, just as the instructions said it would. A very basic body form with legs splayed out to the sides and a small head with smooth features. It looked up at me with its unusual eye sockets and waved its tail a bit. The goo seemed to move fluidly with the motions of the tail in an oddly pleasant way. It was as if he rearranged himself constantly, causing him to appear aligned in this new form. [20.7, 1.4]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:11:32 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:11:32 GMT -6
I had some questions about this new form. How rigid was it? Would he be able to maintain it indefinitely? Did he have any new abilities that the unassembled goop did not? It was time for some real testing, and that meant a more claws on approach. I hoped he would be more pleasant to the touch now, but I was far from certain that would be the case.
At first, I reached out to grab him with my claw, but then I remembered that creatures tended not to like being handled like that. If he looked like a normal creature and (presumably) had emotions like one, then I should treat him like one. I paused, adjusting my stance and instead offering my claw for him to inspect. I could not be sure whether he had a sense of smell or not, but I nonetheless displayed the back of my paw for him to sniff. My actual claws were pointed toward myself, reducing my level of threat to him.
[20.8, 1.6]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:11:51 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:11:51 GMT -6
His tail twitched a few times before he nervously skittered in my direction. He was in most ways just like a regular lizard. His little legs carried him around in quick, jerky spurts. It seemed like, at any given second, he was not sure which direction he was going until he got there. It was charming, in its own odd little way.
Once he made it to my claw, he observed it carefully. Then he suddenly pressed his teeth into one of my toes. I pulled back quickly enough to avoid being harmed, but I was clearly rattled by the experience. “You have teeth!” I declared in surprise.
It was quite shocking to find that a creature with no apparent digestive system had a full set of teeth in its jaws. I figured that they must be for self defense, or perhaps to help him better explore his surroundings. Creatures of this size often put things in their mouth to learn more about them, just had he had just done with my claw. The lizard programming was clearly shining through in that sense.
[20.9, 1.8]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:12:19 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:12:19 GMT -6
I looked back into my bag with the discs neatly arranged inside and thought about how many different forms Mercury could possibly take. Would his personality also adjust with each one? I hardly thought of the lump of metal being capable of having a personality until I saw it as it is now. Lizards were not well known for their intelligence, but it certainly had more liveliness to it than the blob did. Some of the other creatures may yet have more surprises, as well.
“What else can you do?” I mused aloud.
I had a feeling that I had not yet discovered all the surprises that Mercury had to offer. Now that it was a little more familiar with my claw, I dared to reach out and touch him. He allowed me to stroke his head with my claw, though I was uncertain if either of us really enjoyed the experience.
[21, 2]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:12:38 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:12:38 GMT -6
It was very strange the way his texture changed in this new form. His body was a bit more solid, but he still constantly rearranged the tiny particles that made up his body.
He had teeth, which was quickly made obvious to me, but did he have any other weapons? I used one of my toes to lift his claw so that I could inspect it. Creature claws came in many different varieties. Some claws were only for digging, others for scraping foliage or even climbing. Many of them could be used in a pinch for self defense as well. Anyone who got on the bad side of a feline creature knew that very well.
Unlike his teeth, Mercury’s claws seemed weak. I did not think they would be of much use as a weapon. Given his light weight and the shape of the claws, I theorized that they might be suitable for climbing. Many lizard varieties were arboreal, so that made sense.
[21.1, 2.2]
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Star
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Sept 13, 2023 19:13:25 GMT -6
Post by Star on Sept 13, 2023 19:13:25 GMT -6
Well, we had set up next to some trees, so I thought it was an appropriate time to test my theory out. I carefully wrapped my claw around Mercury’s middle, so as not to harm him, and lifted him off the stump. At least, that’s what I thought was going to happen. As I tried to lift him, he melted through my claws into a puddle which quickly reassembled as quickly as it had liquified. It was like swiping my claw through a reflection in a puddle.
“That’s new…” I said aloud as I pondered what had happened. Even though this presentation of the liquid creature seemed very stable, it was able to instantly resist my attempt to capture it. My claws passed through it as if they did not even exist. Very interesting indeed. I supposed that would have a lot of useful applications should I be able to train him to do it on command.
[21.2, 2.4]
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