[Classic Fantasy] Subito Prudens; Slime Genesis

[MrMistoffeleez]

Somewhere, in a darkened dungeon beneath a deadly tomb, two figures stand across a raised stone pond. One sagacious and shrewd, the other devilish and sly, both focused on the images reflected in the waters at their feet. 

Part II: https://www.rpgsolo.com/forum/Thread-Cla...62#pid2462

*********Part 1: Slime Genesis***********

Where am I?

Cursed room

Who am I?

Ditzy shape shifter

Do I know this place?

(50/50) No

Sensation and thought washes over me like cold water in my amorphous form. The world is blank, the stone beneath me cool to the touch. As the thought occurs to me to move, instinctively parts of myself squeeze together which pushes a larger part of my mass forward. It's a familiar, and normal feeling to move this way, but I realize I had never actually questioned how it was done before. I hadn't questioned anything before. It was as though, right now in this moment, it was the first time I realized that I was here. That I even existed. That I am something that exists. Something that *is*.

But what am I?

The rhythmic undulation of my form continues in... a direction. A nearby shallow pool of water absorbs into my body. Reflexive feelings of simultaneous hunger and relief are elicited from my being in reaction to the dissolved minerals and salts, and again when I encounter detritus and moss. There seems to be a good many experiences that I'm seemingly familiar with, as none of this seems new. As if I've moved upon this very floor or floors like it hundreds of times before, but... I'm certain that this is the first time I've ever done this. A wall abruptly halts my advance forward. By continuing to squeeze against it, I'm able to make headway vertically. Carved grooves on the wall's stone surface map out a pattern in my mind as I ascend. 

How have I not noticed this before? How have I not noticed anything before?

Do I recognize anything about the patterns on the wall?

(Very Unlikely) No +Event: Abandon / Hope

The symbol the grooves form is strange and unfamiliar, and overall uninteresting until it reveals a hole. It's not a very big hole, I reckon a fraction of my total size, but I slowly sink into it pushing against the inner surfaces. The tiny tunnel opens up after a short distance to a very similarly sized hole, on a roughly similar feeling wall. The otherside. I easily extrude the rest of me to catch up, falling to the ground with a soft *plop*. Something tries to move out from under where I've landed but it is just as quickly absorbed.

Oh! It's a meat thing! Reflexively speaking, that is. I don't actually know what a meat thing is, but something deep inside me is telling me that whatever this thing is, is what a meat thing is. Oblong, wriggly, and with some sharp bits. And although I've never had the opportunity to really consider them before, what I do know for sure is that what this thing is made out of is what I call meat. 

Which... by comparison means that I'm not? I don't feel like I'm the same meat that I'm digesting. Not the bone either. I don't have any of the parts this thing does. Why? Why is it not like me? What does it know that I don't?

Why hasn't this ever bothered me before?

I'm here now though. 'Here' being right now where I am, and not somewhere else like the other side of the wall I was just on. And I... I've decided. Whatever there is to know, I'm going to find out. A nagging ache at the magnitude of how much there is I don't understand befalls me. But where do I even begin? 

I guess I'll start with the meat thing.

Envisioning my current meal, I pour my focus into what exactly makes it up. The outer meat, its... like a barrier. Unlike my not-meat, it doesn't absorb whatever it touches. Beneath that is the juicier meat, attached to the bones and filled with liquids. It... somehow moves around, the meat pulling on the bones like a lever. The longer I pondered this, the stranger a concept this thing became. 

It all seemed so pointlessly convoluted. It couldn't fit through holes like I can with the bones it has, and how does it eat if its outer meats won't absorb anything? What was I missing? 

I'm missing the experience. That was the only answer that stuck out in my thought-space. I didn't understand what I personally was until I started experiencing it, and I won't understand what the meat thing is until I experience it too. After this brief consideration, resolve builds within me as I consciously twist and contort myself into the shape of the meat. The striations, the bones, the juicy parts, those round orbs in the front, all those sharp bits, all of it. I agonize over every detail, trying not to let slip away from my focus the precise nuances of the whole form. I don't know how long passes until...

Until I see. And hear. And feel. 

Until I understand.

New sensations ignite themselves within my meat-like form. Immediately, I see, and words I didn't previously know flood to the forefront of my thoughts to describe it! This is a corridor, illuminated by a single torchlight. I look at the various patches of moss growing on all of the surfaces, some of which I never could have hoped to have stumbled on by accident! And the smell! The odorous aromas of dozens of different things assault me all at once, and somehow I can distinguish each of them instinctively, by moving closer and further away. And sounds! The clattering of the sharp bits.. the claws on my feet! I know what they are now! I run and run and run, now that I know what running is, and confirm that I'm not eating anything off the ground on the way. A feeling of detachment to the world around me ushers itself into the stomach I now have, even though I've engaged with it in ways I could never have dreamed of before. But... amidst this flurry of new sensation, I've lost the feelings of my original self.

I relax the back half of my form, allowing it to return to its native state. Familiar senses of touch and dissolution return to me, but now they seem.... limited. As if I was naive to think I could have ever learned anything with such a numb, senseless body. Irregardles, it is with this new perspective that I can observe myself for the first time. And smell myself too. The truer parts of my form look... strange. They're a translucent golden color in the fire light. I touch my transformed paw to my normal back half, encountering slime that's cold and wet. Slowly I return completely to my original form, but I keep the senses from the meat in focus. With floating eyes amidst my slime, I'm able to stare at the fire of the torchlight.

I know now. So much more than I ever did. A great veil of ignorance has been lifted from my mind. My new eyes drift to the hole in the wall I had squeezed through, squinting. I never want to go back. I never want to return to a place where I knew nothing. Where my world was cold, blank, odorless, and silent. Averting my gaze, I leave. It hardly matters where I go, it only has to be away from here.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

Hello! A note from me: I went back through and edited the shit out of this story to make it more readable. A writer friend of mine told me that the first time writing it is for myself, and the second time going through it is for you! I hope its more enjoyable now! Thanks for reading~

[MrMistoffeleez]

The hallways of this dungeon stretched on for a long time. I tried walking for a while as the meat-thing, but I found moving as a slime was more appetizing.

Do I encounter anything?

(Somewhat Likely) Yes

Is it a monster?

(50/50) Yes

Minotaur

While I move, I attempt synthesizing more of my meat senses into my more comfortable native form. Smelling and taste (yummy!) I can have sensate over my entire surface, but hearing is a little trickier. Eventually I settle on having ear holes be roughly in the same relative location as the eyes I have floating around inside me. Quickly I learn why the meat kept both of these sets towards the front, as not to have the rest of oneself getting in the way of them.

A tremor in the ground sends a shiver throughout my body, and I freeze. I never had cared about this sort of thing before, but something from my newer sense, some innate kind of instinct, told me to freeze. The tremors were sudden and staccato, growing in strength before my other senses started to catch on. I could smell sweat, dried blood, and heavy breath on the air. I heard regular, heavy pounding on the ground from what might be feet, and I saw the shadow of something very large. Around the corner, a towering creature presumably made of meat walked carrying a blood-caked club. It looked down at me with a pair of eyes of its own. It was differently shaped than the meat-things I was used to, and much larger. I heard it snort, and it took a large step over me before continuing on its way. 

I wonder, if I hadn't learned these sensations, if I would have ever realized that something that large even existed. It faded from view down the hallway until I only felt its tremors, and then nothing. I was once again alone. And once again I am overwhelmed with a newfound epiphany. Up until now, I unconsciously thought there were only meat-things smaller than myself. But this was the first time I encountered something... bigger. How big am I anyway? Was that thing just now considered small, and therefore I insignificant? The excitement of finding out welled inside me, propelling me faster through the dungeon.

Do I find the exit?

(Unlikely) Yes, but...

Mercenaries

Up until now, every meat creature I had passed didn't pay any attention to me. As though I weren't out of the ordinary. I continued to make my way around aimlessly, until I came upon a group of several meat creatures who seemed different from the rest. The noises they made were complicated. They were coordinated, carrying metal objects and wearing metal clothes I had seen decorate various hallways and rooms here.

"A slime! Lookout!" I didn't understand what they were shouting, but one of was pointing at me causing the others to wield their metal things and become a lot more threatening. 

Once more, instincts from the flesh I had eaten overrode my thinking. The instant the biggest of the three took a step towards me, my meat-instincts told me to run. My sides squeezed and threw my weight in the opposite direction, but they were much faster than I could have imagined. Once one of them was upon me, my instincts screamed louder for legs to run away with. Without thought, I heard the clattering of claws beneath me launching me away from where something heavy struck where I had just been. A frenetic agony erupted inside my body, causing the world around me to slow down. 

"Wh-What? Did you see that?" They spoke more incomprehensible garble as I fleed.

Do I get away?

(50/50) Yes

I skitter into a crevice, my transformed body panicking as their heavy footsteps stop behind me. I feel as though I'm about to explode with terror and/or excitement. After a moment's pause, the beating heart and gasping lungs inside me melt away to a much calmer uniformity as the crevice becomes filled with my normal amorphous self.

Do they give up?

(50/50) Yes +Event: Carelessness / Dispute

After several eyes poke themselves at the opening of the crevice, footsteps storm off to the tune of emotionally charged shouting of the creatures, most likely expressing surprise or disappointment at my egress. I learned something just now. Something I don't know if I am happy to have been made aware. I think... the word is... 

Fear. 

A completely different shiver wracked my person at the advent of it. The same sensation of naivete that I had felt when I first explored these senses once again struck me. Before I met them, I was happy. Everything was wonderful. I had thought ignorance was the worst thing that I'd ever experienced. But everything has changed once again. The whole world is more foreign to me now than I ever thought it could be. Fear made me want to return to the nescient unawareness of that darkened room, but I can't. I can't ever go back.

[MrMistoffeleez]

Does anyone else come in while I wait?

(Unlikely) No, but...

I extend a pseudopod from the crevice, carrying an eyeball to look around. The coast appears clear, so I pool out onto the floor in front of the wall in a puddle. Across the room, bright light pours in through a large set of doors left slightly ajar at the top of a flight of stairs. My eye strains from looking towards it directly, and looking away leaves a multicolored afterimage that persists for a little while. With trepidation I approach, but a sense of fear builds up inside me giving me pause.

The ones who tried to hurt me just now, that light must have been where they came from. Slowly I turn around to consider whether or not I should head back, but the light left in my eyes gives me the answer. I've already seen it and I know its there. To stay true to my decision to learn all there is, there would be no going back. I squeeze my slime up one stair at a time, the light still straining the eyes floating within me more and more as I approach. In a near blinding flash, I stretch through the threshold for my eyes to finally adjust.

Blue sky. Verdant forest. The Sun. Far off mountains and lakes. The smell of wood, of leaves, of life. The chirping of creatures, the rustling of trees, the howl of the wind. 

The warmth. 

It was amazing. It was all amazing. Everything I had just experienced was surely meant for this, for this moment. I needed to know darkness in order to contrast light, wrought stone to emphasize the verdant beauty of what lay ahead. And finally, I felt as though I understood. I finally grasped just how little I actually knew, and the thought stirred a profound sadness within me. A sadness that made me want to smile, and shout, and rush back into the cave to tell each and every one of the things I passed by to come out and look at this.

I peered behind me at the entrance and once again was greeted with familiar shadow and dark. Each and every one of the denizens all had eyes, all had noses and ears. Why didn't they come out here to see this? Why weren't they just as excited as I was to discover? I looked back at the scenic view and puzzled. 

Maybe they've seen it already. Maybe they come out and go back in as they want to. Maybe.... 

[Maybe there's a reason no one leaves.] I shiver at that passing thought. If I had to deal with creatures as violent as the ones from before, in order to witness this beauty then... it was worth it. Here, at the pinnacle of all of my experiences, I'm deciding right here right now that it will be worth it. And.. And.. And nothing will stop me. Least of all dumb looking upright meat sacks like those. 

Voices come up from the stairs behind me.

I make a break for it, hoping they don't see me

(Somewhat Likely) No, but...

"H-hey... did you see a rat run that way? Y'don't think..." I leave them behind to their gibbering nonsense. It appears its only my slime form that draws their ire.

I don't stop running to check if they followed. I had a head start and I didn't intend to waste it. Bundles of green foliage brush against my fur, flying by as I race ahead.

It hardly matters where I go, it only has to be away from here. I slow down as once again my meat begins to wear itself out. I relax my form and settle onto the ground in a puddle. The meat takes a lot of energy to use, I don't know if I'd be able to make myself this tired in my slime form alone. Although... its strange being a slime now, because slimes don't get tired. I know this because I have to use the meat-sense's to know I'm low on energy. I replenish myself by dissolving the plants and ground beneath me. They had a completely different taste to the moss I was used to, and was much more... satisfying.

Do I remain unbothered?

(Somewhat Unlikely) Yes

The jelly that composes my person seeps into the underbrush, and with it, I stumble upon some more wiggly things. Not meat, per-se, but not slime either. Tiny hard shelled, many legged things dissolve within me as I focus on them to decode their structures. With such small samples, I'm unsure I'd be able to gleam anything from them. Plus there's so many different kinds. As I drag myself along the ground, I continue to find more new and different ones, as well as some of the ones I've already found. It takes a good while longer before I think I grasp at least several types of them.

They ranged from 8 to 4 legs, all their eyes appear to see in a much wider radius than the meat eyes I was using, but they don't... focus on anything. I pattern their smaller sights around my slime being to get a good gist in all directions with the larger eyes up front. Their senses of smell also reveal previously unknown scents, revealing trails and patterns they've left behind to get around the forest with. 

Whats strange is that none of them are able to hear. I suppose that makes sense given how large my ears are comparably to their bodies, I guess a pair of ears wouldn't fit.

As I reach a clearing, the sky begins to darken and a cold sweeps in on the breeze. The light in the sky begins to disappear at the edges of the world. Is it really so bright that it warms everything it touches? Once the light winks out, it leaves behind a cold I'm used to. The ceiling of air fades out, and bright tiny specks begin to twinkle. Gradually, the next wonder of this world revealed itself before me. This time, there was no sudden revelation, or great discovery. It was simply the first time I became face to face with a full night's sky.

I stopped. I stopped and stared at the overwhelming magnificence and scale of what shown above me. A distant colorful vista of mysterious cosmic clouds cut through the background of an inconceivable number of vast glowing lights. It barely mattered how many different eyes I used to witness this moment, the lesson was the same. I finally had my answer. 

I am small.

[MrMistoffeleez]

Dawn came. Still I stood where I was, as a blanket of orange, pink, and eventually blue and grey hid the night away from sight. It was beautiful in its own right. Once the chirping of creatures came again from above, I moved on from where I had stopped leaving behind an exposed, perfectly circular patch of dirt; all the grass being dissolved. I was able to consider deeply what had happened to me up until now, the profound nature of it all. With the rising sun, I refocus to my surroundings, mentally scaling back my attention and admiration to what lay within my grasp. Contorting some muscle and bones for running, I decide a few extra eyes around the body would be a good measure.

NPC positive

Tiger

Several animals larger than me jump through a nearby bush past me, running in terror and stopping me in my tracks. Noises of the underbrush being disturbed came from all directions. Peaking my head into the bushes where the larger creatures had came from, there knelt something my instincts were telling me was trouble, and that I should avoid it. Fear shot down my transformed back, as I remain where I am too curious to run away. Next to the creature laid still another of the ones who who had jumped out at me before. Its inside meat and juices were sprawled out on the ground, as the terrible creature buried its face inside it. 

Is that how meat things ate? It's so wasteful. My teeth clicked and ground together on a nearby leaf, as I mimicked what I saw out of curiousity. Crushing the leaf over and over wasn't bad, it felt rather natural in fact, but the mushed leaf merely sat in the middle of my body once the swallowing muscles had decided they were done with it. Maybe this was my body saving it for later? That would explain how meat things get by without constantly absorbing whatever they touched. I mentally file that fun new fact away and look back towards the creature.

It was looking at me. Its eyes were piercing, its long, pointed teeth taking up half of its face. Ripped meat hung from its jaw, dripping with inner juices. I realized I must look a lot like its next meal right now, so I retreat into the bush. In seconds, it was ripping through the bush looking expectant, finding only my oozing golden shape where it thought an animal to be. It hesitated, looking around before it sneezed. Its breathing was somewhat rapid.

Attach

As my body squeezes towards it, it growls and reverses its ears. It bites at me, its tongue connecting with my slime before it rears backwards. Its head frenetically cocks to either side before getting closer again. A claw gingerly reaches out and touches my slime, pulling back just as quickly. It holds the claw in the air above me and tries again, this time its touch lingering on my form. 

I envelop the claw and hold on as tight as I can. It lunges back, flailing the leg I'm attached to, pawing at me with its other leg. Once I had gotten down past the outer layers on its fur and flesh, its inner meat proving to be quite tasty with my newfound sense of taste. The more it seemingly struggled the more of itself it fed into my shape. Two different kinds of devouring instincts took hold, one slime one meat, and a third began to develop. This must be the hunger coming from my prey. My mind flooded with singular purpose, vaguely distracted by the unpleasant howling noises it made. I leapt for its maw to silence it, trying to reach the vibrating parts I know are usually inside past the mouth part where meat things tend to make these awful noises. It wasn't long before I had absorbed my way through its top half. There was so much to learn of this creature, my attention was completely surrounded on it.

As I nearly finished, its memories and desires explode within me. The world stayed the same but my thoughts and perceptions were thrown into flux. I want to relax in the warmth of the sun. I want to swim, and enjoy myself. I want to run. FAST. I love chasing what runs from me, I love it when they run. I want to kill them for running, and I want to eat them for it. I love the eating part.

A low growl and a sneeze knocks me out of a near trance-like state, bringing a new pair of eyes into focus of their surroundings. The world smells completely different. Or rather, it smells the same but now I'm focusing on completely different things. Like that meat. OH that meat. I lumber over on my dexterous paws, and sink my teeth into the kill. The feeling of it ripping from its bones; the taste it leaves as its swallowed; the whole experience is rapturous. I dig my claws to push down while I continue to pull off chunks of venison, to eat more and more while its still fresh, and as my frenzy peaks I spring for it's head with my jaws open abnormally wide, crushing, ripping, and swallowing it all in one motion fluid motion before-

I stop. Its memories and desires explode within me. I remember that I'm a simple creature. I like grazing. I like being with other deer (as the Tiger calls them.) (A tiger is what the deer calls tigers.). I get nervous around things that get too close too quickly. I like the quiet days. But I'm suddenly afraid. Terrified. This is the worst I've ever felt. The piercing of huge heavy claws, tearing at my legs. They ache and I cannot run. Jaws bigger than my head clamp down on my-

That was all. I remember what happens next, but as though I'm looking down on something I accomplished and was proud of instead of being terrified and angry. The duality of it left me stunned while I experienced the same moment as both predator and prey. I backed away, my form trembles. Parts of the deer, tiger, and a large rat (which is what the tiger and deer called the first thing) all fought within me. It was a deafening chorus of motivations and instincts, screaming at each other for dominance over which was right. I need to eat to live. If I don't eat, I'll die. If I don't kill, I'll die. But eating begets the eaten; those who die so I may live, those like me who fear death all the same.

I collapse to the ground in a blob. I am a slime. I ate a rat. The rat didn't want to die, and I hadn't understood that fear before. I hadn't understood what hunger was, or necessity. This is understanding I had killed for, to understand what it means to die. I couldn't move under the weight of this knowledge.

I watched as other creatures slowly gathered around the dead body of the deer. Crows, flies, and others that I now recognized. They were reminiscent of how I was before. They scavenge, feed off what is already dead without the responsibility of having killed anything. Enviously I stared, and a small desire to return to that state, to return to the cave made its way into my thoughts. Yet similarly, my attention drifts to the sky, the sun, and the stars that hide behind them. Regardless of who killed it, these scavengers needed it to die. I was dependent on this...process without ever realizing it. It wouldn't matter if I was still in the cave, the cycle of death and feeding happened there too.

The only thing that's changed is me. And with that, the responsibility of this knowledge, although heavy, no longer impeded me. The more time that past, the better I felt. Whatever rearranging was going on inside me was settling down. There was a certain.. candidness about the way it worked. Except for the memories of my final moments before a different version of me kills myself. I can't help but be a little bit....extremely critical about the way I had gone about eating me without asking me first. I get that I was really hungry, and I looked delicious just standing there but-

Several of my manifested eyes fluttered and blinked. The memories were of me? I concentrate on what my earliest memories were, and I get vague flashes of this forest and chittering darkness. Being surrounded by a hundred of my rodent siblings, being reared by my deer and tiger parents, and about a million other nebulous feelings of being freshly hatched out of an egg. I'm there but not there at the same time, and some of these memories feel like they're much older than yesterday, which I'm still absolutely sure are my real first memories as a slime. In spite of this, I feel older. Much older. I didn't know what being older was like until just now when I realized that's how I feel.

And the more aware of this I become, the more the memories fade into each other. Detail and nuance surrendered themselves to obscurity as only the most prominent memories persist, with solely the experiences and lessons learned remain as opposed to any precise recollection of events. Before too long I felt like myself again, as though I was waking up for the first time all over again.

[MrMistoffeleez]

NPC Action

Recruit

Passive-aggressive female Human prisoner

The ground was sloping downward, and as the sun began to diminish and the sky dimmed again, rushing water gurgled in the distance. I had originally started out as a tiger, but being a deer made navigating the forest physically easier and faster.

Coming upon a stream, I stop for a drink. Going through all this extra effort of twisting myself up into this deer shape to lap up the water and swallow water felt unnecessary, especially when I could just absorb as much water as I wanted to as a slime. Nevertheless, there was something more rewarding about it going about it like this. Slimes lacked feelings of reward, however also lacked desire. They had no motivation to do anything. They had as much presence as the grass I graze.

The heavy sound of stomping hooves made its way to my ears through the noise of the stream. There was no particular smell on the breaze, which must mean I'm upwind of it. ...Don't rightly know how I know that. I hop over some low shrubs and peer out through the forest. Two very large... deer-looking things each have one of those upright meat creatures riding on them, and a third upright one walking with its arms bound in front, as though leading the small pack they have. The back two riders were wearing and carrying metal similar to the ones from the dungeon, while the first is only covered with cloth. 

Its so strange how none of them have fur like every other meat thing I've seen, not to mention all the weird chirping noises they make. I watch them motionless, the larger animals make their way to a slower part of the stream for a drink, followed by the first upright whose bonds were loosened from the big-deer and tied to a nearby tree. 

"Not long now. You'll be facing trial in a day's time." They were gibbering to each other as they unpacked delicious smelling sacks filled with all manners of mystery. One such sack is thrown to the bound one, as the metal wearing ones draw the horses away from the stream and similarly tie them to other trees.

Their fire soon became the only light in sight. The night sky remained cloudy and grey much to my disappointment, even though my focus hadn't shifted away from the aromas surrounding the sacks they were eating out of. It's largely in part why I've stuck around this long. The meat animals jittered and chattered, leaving their fire to pee on occasion. Once night was in full swing, silence finally befell them. One of them stayed awake, tending their fire before dozing off sitting on its log. I make another mental note to try this sleeping thing, as even the large deer appear to be doing it.

I couldn't ignore something about the smell of the food these things are eating. The scent is calling to me, driving me crazy and compelling me to seek it out. I have to get closer. To avoid the sloppy sounds of my slime I twist up into a deer and make my way towards it. The night's silence amplified every shift of my weight and step I take. I give the upright ones wearing metal a wide birth.

A soft sound of shock behind me comes from the upright and bound one, waking up and contorting its face trying not to make noise. My eyes meet its weirder eyes and we both kept still. Hesitating, it retrieves something from its belongings. Slowly it outstretches its arm, holding one of the aromatic curios I'm desperate to sample. I pause and wait. I don't know why but it seems the right thing to do before getting closer. I wasn't too thrilled to be facing one of these again, but the smell of its morsel is overpowering. Also this was the meat thing that is bound to a tree and did not carry metal. A brief glance out of the eyes on my flank reveal the other ones to still be asleep. 

The dimming fire was all that lit the surroundings during my approach. Not wanting to be in its arm's reach, I extend the front of my head as a pseudopod carrying my jaw with it, quickly snapping the meal out of its grip. 

"Shit!" It made a surprised, muffled sound, backing against the tree in seeming terror. I kept it in my sight by opening several eyes on the side of my body. The snack was pretty good, tasting similar to how it smelled! A brief instance of victory cheered along to my curiosity being sated.

"Shitshitshitshitshitshit!" The thing chirped away as I returned to the food sacks closer to the horses. Augh! That meat thing was being too loud! Its noise began rousing the large dear, who immediately started panicking and scrambling to get away from me. Their sudden whines and frantic flailing woke up the remaining sleeping creatures.

"What?!? What's going on? Who's there?" The one sitting by the fire stood up, drawing its metal and shaking its head. It met with my gaze several time, first the eyes on my head, then my shoulders, then my side and thighs. 

"What.. are you. Rokilda, awake and see this." My body froze in fear again to the sound of its shouting. I deeply want to run, but with the large deer and the one that was bound behind me they have me surrounded. On the contrary, I'm not just a rat anymore. Predatory aggression and fear felt different. Instead of running, I wanted to kill. Kill what threatens me. Running prolongs our confrontation, but killing means they can't hurt me ever again. And just like that, my teeth were long and sharp, my paws thick and clawed, my legs ready to pounce.

Do I attack successfully?

(Somewhat Likely) Yes, and...

Critical Injury: Requires immediate attention; clearly life-threatening if not immediately deadly.

"M-Monster! Rokilda! Rokilda wake u-!" I fling myself onto its outstretched metal, pushing its arms out of the way and sink my jaws into its neck. We both topple over the log its in front of, and with a powerful twist I rip my mouth free from its meat to meet the gaze of the second one. I couldn't stand with cold metal skewering my form, interrupting my tiger-shape's movement. 

Can I dodge?

(Somewhat Unlikely) Yes, and...

Rolling out of the way of several strikes from the remaining meat thing's metal, I take a moment to adjust the muscles it cut through to reach around or make due. With some mobility gained, I try to go for this other one's neck like the last.

(Somewhat Likely) No

Its metal cuts into me, knocking me away. Slime thrown from my wound hits the ground. I had figured out already how to shape myself into meat that does not know pain, but I still felt as my muscles contracted unable to relax or pull on severed bone. I literally have to pull myself together in order to attack again, this time while it strikes.

Do I dodge?

(Somewhat Unlikely) No

"Why! Won't! You! Die!" It continues to rip through my meat, stabbing and slashing before I figure out what needs to be put back where. I bite at it in vain, unable to reach it while my disconnected muscles do nothing to push me towards it. I now understand that I'm not very good at being a tiger. A normal tiger would definitely have stopped moving by now, if the deer was any indication as to how meat reacts to being cut up this much. Once nigh-completely immobile, the panting upright meat thing backs away. Its face is one of horror as I relax into amorphous goo. Geez, I'm not that repulsive.. am I? Now I try to settle things the old fashioned way, with a squeeze and a leap.

Do I land?

(50/50) No

I'm aware that I'm much slower as a slime, and the upright animal ungracefully fell out of the way cutting the front half of me in two. However, as a slime I could pull myself or pool myself into a single blob quickly and easily now. The first sword that was inside me had sunk to the ground and I decided to leave it where it fell. The upright animal ineffectually swung and cut through my jelly over and over, before turning to run. Just as before I had done with the deer's head, I lurch and lead with the tiger's jaw open and ready to bite. 

Do I hit?

(Somewhat Likely) Yes, but...

Severe Injury: Incapacitating and may become Critical if untreated.

It springs to the side at the last moment, and instead of its neck I bite down onto the back of its leg. It lets out a shout and falls to the ground, but kicks me off with its other leg. Kicking bothers me more than the cutting does, something about the bluntness of the blows hurt as opposed to just being separated and sliced. It got up on three limbs and tried to run before falling down again. 

Suddenly I was reminded of how I had died as the deer. Er... how the deer died before I was the deer, or how it died and I consumed its memories of dying.

Whatever.

Watching it now, this upright thing turns out to be a normal meat animal afterall. And I wasn't killing it because I was hungry, I was killing it because I thought it was dangerous. Which I guess I still think it is, but watching it limp away lessened any danger I had seen before. A strange kind of empathy of looking at a wounded animal washes through me, quelling my tiger's desire to defend itself. I can say for sure the danger had passed. 

It did still look a little delicious.

Besides... behind me lay the dead body of the first one I had killed. I had an opportunity here to understand them. Hidden twinges of anger and irrational hate flashed before me. I was angry, and most of all, frustrated with their behaviors because I didn't understand why they acted the way they do. Well, now it seems I have an opportunity. At the end of my thoughts lay a still bleeding body, glimmering in the firelight. One brief glance at the other two meat animals staring at me frozen and awaiting my next move, before I move in to absorb my prey. I tried to lock this moment in with my memories, as the last time I'll look at them as strange, unknowable, arbitrarily violent animals. I shapelessly envelop myself around the pale lifeless form of my kill, starting at the head first down to its feat.

And just the same as it has before, its memories and desires explode within me.

[MrMistoffeleez]

My name is Elysciette, Elys for short. As the fourth child of 5 sisters, I had to be strong to survive. I got in fights, I scrapped, I bit, punched, and kicked my way into adulthood. I was told I'd never be married with my attitude and lack of manners, and I was just fine with that. I started drinking at a young age, so I'm told, until I got thrown out of a tavern by the guards and knew I had to do something soon or I'd end up like my good-for-nothing, piece of shit father. So I joined the guards. I was already used to being yelled at and beat, but as a guard I could turn around and do the same without jail time. That suited me just fine. Yesterday some troublemaker was being hauled off out of our hold to a larger court. Me and Rokilda, the only other guard who doesn't seem to have anything to prove and therefore the only other guard I can stand, set out with her on the two days walk to get her there. The night passed without incident, until...

"M- m- m- MONSTER!" A voice I now recognized as Rokilda, screaming a word I now understood. As the memories of my newest past fade and blend in with my other childhoods, the rest remains clear. Monsters. I, or rather Elys, has always been told to be wary of monsters, things she didn't understand. And a deer with 7 eyes all across its body was definitely a monster. One that turns to a tiger before her eyes and attacks, one she was sure she impaled upon her sword, but got her anyway-

The memories end and I look down at my hands. They have long fingers, and no fur. The rest of my body had no fur either. I look at Rokilda and the prisoner. They're staring back, dumbstruck. At least now on some level I knew why.

"Hhh-.." I try making noises like they made. Words? "Ro... kil... da." My movements, although awkward, feel pretty automatic. 

"E...Elys?" She whimpers. "I-is... that y..yo.?" Her head bobs to one side repeatedly until she falls over. Blood was pooling out of her leg onto the ground. Blood loss. I know it when I see it. I'd seen it before as Elys. As the tiger. I knelt beside her and thought about eating her as well. To Elys, death was something foreign, something she knew would happen but would never happen to *her*. Once someone dies everything about them is gone. If I absorb Rokilda... her life experience wouldn't be going to waste. It would be preserved in me. On the other hand, all manners of disgust and revulsion came forward at the idea of consuming another human.

I quietly and quickly quelled misgivings of so-called 'cannibalism' and opened my jaw to accompany her head. Afterall, I wasn't actually human even though it's human instincts that I'm feeling. I didn't need the body either. It seems that in order for me to gain other creature's memories, specifically meat ones, all I have to do is eat the brain part. So going for just Rokilda's head, with tiger's teeth and jaw, I manage to chew through the neck and swallow it-

Her memories and desires explode within me.

My name is Rokilda. Some friends call me Rocky. As the second oldest daughter I worked hard to support my family. I was tough, even when my mother died in childbirth when I was young, losing any younger siblings I was to have. My father was a good man who took care of her, but in the end there was no medicine that could help. He taught my older brother and I practical skills, made sure we knew how to fight, and how to take care of ourselves. My youngest sister got in a fight with-

Hold on, I didn't have younger siblings. Elys did. Rokilda did not. I was rough and tumble, and the thought of childbirth scared me. My good-for-nothing dad would- Wait, no my dad was great. Brother thought highly of himself, my other sisters looked up to me, my mom is getting older except that she died two springs ago-

"Augh!" Squeezing the sides of my head I melt myself into a slime. The complicated lives of two humans fought for resolution inside me. Parts of my body lash out, beyond my control, twisting and untwisting among shapes of body parts and teeth. I- I can't- Who am I?! Who am I?! Who a-

Darkness. With no discontinuity in my memories, I open my eyes. I'm lying on the ground, the cold night air pungent with the smell of campfire. I sit up, dizzy and look around.

"Must have passed out.." I mutter to myself. It doesn't look like too much time has passed. Standing up, I see the bound prisoner. She hasn't moved from where I last saw her, staring with mouth agape. I must have been out only for a minute or so. I start to take the armor and clothes off my old body. Er... Rokilda's body. The clothes still feel like mine, because I feel like I am Rockilda, but I also feel like I'm Elys, a deer, a tiger, a dire rat, and a nebulous hundred other bugs. I partially undo myself into a slime once in my clothes, sucking out the unseemly bloodstains around the neck. I equip my sword, and walk back to the camp. 

"H- aaah-! Stay back!" Esclair scrambled backwards, feverishly trying to pull at her bonds although her hands were very sturdily tied behind her back. Oh! Esclair is the prisoner's name. I know that now.

"You... Esclair." She recoils in terror at the sound of her name.

"Wh-what did you do to them?! Wh- who or what are you?" My eyebrows furrowed at Esclair's shouting. She asks good questions.

Introduce a new NPC

PC negative

"What's going on? Are you okay?" Shouting came from the woods. Both mine and Esclair's eyes shot to the tree line, night still upon us. I wince, putting pressure on my eyes with my fingers as they contort into that of a tiger's. I could discern roughly three shapes, two of them going opposite directions around the camp.

"M-MONSTER! THERE'S A MONSTER HERE! HELP." Esclair shouts out to them, and they clumsily run into the camp. With notably more grace I make my escape on two upright legs, but I can still hear them shouting behind me. The rustling of branches drowned out any of their specific words.

The three shapes, I recognized them. I first met them in the dungeon, at its entrance. Humans. Vindictive and persistent humans who attack what they don't understand, just as Elys and Rokilda would do the same.

Just as I had. But I did so with the intention of finding out! They definitely seek to destroy, and nothing else. I'm not the same as them, that much is obvious.


Do I get away?

(Very Likely) Yes, and...

I don't hear anything following me, and given what I saw through human eyes, they're not suited to pursue me until it's light out, which should give me a good head start before morning.

Vindictive.

The word spoke itself once again in my mind. Deer would not rally to hunt down a tiger that had killed one of their own, but the side of me that was Elys and Rokilda was absolutely sure that's what's coming. My human thoughts wouldn't settle down, as a whirlwind of strategy and planning whipped up all my attention, until a single passing thought immediately commanded my focus. It stops me in my tracks.

They thought like I did. The deer, tiger, rat, and others didn't think about... things on a scale beyond themselves, but the human thoughts I'm having do. I'm thinking about where and how I exist, what or who I am. I finally have words for those questions that have been nagging me! Their language communicates things I've been trying to ask since I first began. I understand them better, though not completely. Their actions aren't ones of creatures enraptured by the profound experiences I've been having. Are they used to it? Embittered? Jaded? Will I become that way too?

I shook my head and started running again. Maybe I won't. Humans only know human lives. I know much more than that. And yet, I feel as though I've only just started to comprehend what I'm looking for.

"Truth"

*********End of Part 1***********

[MrMistoffeleez]

The first figure frowns, leering across the pond. The game had only just started, and already much was decided. The second figure merely observes unkinking, without a trace of concern or desire.

*********Part 2: Slime Induction***********

With the newest dawn came the newest discovery: Red. No other creature I am saw it, not tiger, deer, rat nor insect. Everything now had amazing depth and vibrancy. The campfire from last night had given me a little preview, but now the scenery shone through in the daylight with brilliant color. Human eyes looked weird, but they were magnificent.

Do I encounter anything in the morning?

(Somewhat Unlikely) No, but...

A morning to myself in the woods that should still prove to be interesting.

Disruption

A representative

Pursue

(A representative; Pursue)

Giant snake

Without knowing what to do with my human armor and gear, I stuck around twisted up in my human form to wear it. It was balanced to be worn by a creature of an upright shape, and didn't sit right with the shoulders or hips as anything else. It was also too heavy to just carry, but parts of me wanted to keep it around.

Do I see my pursuer first?

(Somewhat Unlikely) No

Getting tired, I sit down by a tree. I feel out the ways my muscles ache, slowly undoing and redoing their to rejuvenate myself for a little while. Maintaining this form felt similar to keeping one of the muscles of this form flexed for a long time. I felt I had to relax it or relieve it once in a while. 

"Hhhhhhello." 

I immediately stop relaxing at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. "Whh-h....??" I start to talk, but cough instead. I hadn't gotten the throat just so. "*Ahem* Who's there? Show yourself." I stand up and draw my sword, mostly for show. It's what every other human I've seen done when they're surprised, mostly. 

A hissing and a slithering from above in a nearby tree reveals the hanging form of a giant snake. I only know its giant due to human intuition telling me snakes shouldn't normally be that big. 

"Thissssss one iss asssking the quessstionsss." It hypnotically sways side to side as its body unravels out of the tree into a spiral on the ground. "Assss for ihhntroductionsss, thisss one merely represssentsss an... ihhnteresssted partyhh." Its voice was like silk, but nothing about it seemed friendly. Yellow and red stripes alternated across its tuberous form. Huh. If this were a day earlier, I wouldn't have seen its red color. Maybe it has other colors I still can't see.

Focus!

"And what business do they have with me?" Thankfully Elys and Rokilda came with negotiation abilities, "And how is it you speak with human tongue? Are there other animals can as well?" My voice wavers, dropping up and down in pitch the more I nervous I get. I'm starting to believe that some of these meat instincts are irrational, at least for my particular situation. A snake that big could definitely gobble up a human. But a slime? Bad idea.

Peace

"My misssstressss hhass auguhhred hhyour disssruption in thesse woodsss. Upssssetting the hhhumansss iss unwissse. Hhhit would be wissser to besseach hhher forgivvvenesss, to ssshelter hhyou from their... wraathh." The snake approached me, speaking only half an arms length away from my face as it slithered in a circle where I was standing. "Hhhimpresssive thhhat hyou are not afraiid." Its tongue flicks out and grazes me several times.

I sheathe my sword, to show I'm willing to comply. It's merely a formality, given I don't even know if I could fight with it in the first place, but the snake concedes and winds out from around me into the tree I had decided to rest on. Its long, muscular body could stretch from tree to tree, not needing to touch the ground. "So where is your mistress? Who is she?"

Spontaneous female witch

(Heck yeah!)

"Qhhuessstionss will waiiit." It merely kept on going expecting me to follow. The snake took me to an outcropping of rock, decorated with carved rocks and runes that all set the frame for an alter at the end of the path. 

"Good, you've fetched the newcomer." A plain looking woman only alittle older than I am, than Rokilda and Elys were, stands with her back turned to me. "Well, out with it then." Her tone is stern. She lifts a plate holding a cookie and a cup of something liquid. Tea comes to mind. "And don't try anything funny here, you'll regret it." A howling wind whips its way around the decorated rocks surrounding us, growing louder as she awaits my answer. I stare blankly. She stares back. 

"Uh.." A dull noise escapes my throat, several of the twisted human squishy parts thumping and squeezing in reaction to being stared at by this person. "I'm not... sure-"

"You suddenly show up and think you can make this your new hunting ground, hm? Without even introducing yourself?" She turns around and pierces through me with her gaze that starts a strange sort of excitement in my twisted up meat bits. Her eyes are that of a snake. "Talk about bold and stupid. This happens to be my forest, and I suggest you give me a real answer soon if you want to live to see your next meal."

"A-ah! I... I'm..!" I stammer, the words are stuck in my throat. My legs feel like jelly as their imposing presence bears down on me. That and my legs are actually made of jelly. I break down and melt into my native form, keeping what I need for speaking taut and transformed. "..I.. am a slime. Its nice to meet you." I finally manage to get out before pooling out onto the ground, trying to escape into it to get out of the way of her stare.

Her face contorts into what I can now recognize as disgust and surprise. "A S-slime..? From the dungeon?" Her posture breaks down and takes a step back as her expression changes into that of just confusion. Parts of me recognize a dramatic shift in the dynamic of this conversation as she enters into a more defensive state. 

"Y-yeah, I'm from a dungeon I think. At least that's what I remember.."

She closes her eyes and shakes her head, returning to her piercing stare. Immediately I felt the pressure of her presence weigh on me once again. "I'm going to ask you some questions and you will answer them." The speed with which she commands her demeanor was scary. The giant snake had nonchalantly coiled itself around the alter behind her, most likely used to all this. I nod the pseudopod I'm using as a mouth in response. 

"Firstly, what manner of slime are you. I've never seen one that's golden like you are." 

No other slimes are golden like me? Weird. "I uh.. I don't know, I haven't... really gotten to know a lot." I twist up the inside of my goo into the brain-shapes of Rokilda's and Elys' memories to try and recall something about other slimes. "I'm not... very familiar with my own kind, or myself for that matter. It's all very new to me."

She squints suspiciously. "New? Were you not always a slime?" 

"Well yes, I have, as far as I know, but before that I was... " My words trailed off while I searched the vocabularies of two brains to properly describe not being self-aware up until yesterday. "I was just a normal slime before, I guess. Then yesterday, I... was different. I suddenly knew...er... that I uh.. Existed. Does that make sense..?" 

Her eyes flared. "You were awakened yesterday... Why. What master do you serve." 

Again, I wrack my brains for info. "Uh.. I uh, I feel like I serve captain.... Heimeri [RG]?" 

She blinked. "Heimeri? From Deepbell's [RG]  town guard?" She looks at my guard uniform. "Those guards... Are they inside you?" She grips a gnarled wooden stave that was propped up against the alter. A mound of my slime recoils as she excitedly lunges forward. 

"Uh-! Y-yes but, uh.. but not e-exactly..." I squeeze myself a little bit further away, before hoisting all my guard gear into the right positions, shaping my slime to fit inside it as a human. "I eh.. it's hard to explain, but uhm... I sort of am them. But I'm also definitely not them anymore. I *was* them. Uh, when they were individuals that is. But now I'm uh.. both of them? Or at least just their memories? I'm also a lot of other things as well, at the same time. And we... I mean, *I*, um.. I mean.. its just me now. I'm not like how I was when I was either of them, Rokilda or Elysciette that is. They've gotten.. I mean, *I've* gotten, a lot of new perspective since uh.. I/they became me. Only I don't feel different? Like I feel pretty pissed that I killed myself a couple times, but also now I know where I was coming from when I did it? So it's hard to stay mad at myself.."

The woman's look of disbelief washes over her whole body as she seemingly relaxes, or at least backs off. "A slime that doesn't just mimic things, but *becomes* them?" Her words were barely audible.

"Ah hah.." Nervously laughing, I look using an eye opened on the back of my head to see if anything was behind me, in case I had to run. "I-is there anything else..?"

Her stave hit the alter which made a noise entirely too loud for the amount of effort she appeared to have put in. "Second Question. How many humans have you eaten?"

"O-oh, o-only the two! I was chased away by these other hu-" She hit her stave again. 

"From now on, you're not allowed to eat humans unless I say so."

It was my turn for disbelief. It's not as though I had gone out of my way to eat them, at least not the second one. Uh... at least not initially. "Look I-"

Does she miss?

(Somewhat Likely) Yes, and...

"/Inflammum!/" Her stave twisted and a roiling spout of fire cracked through the air, scorching the ground next to me. I jump out of the way, and fall with a hard thud as my human clothes constrict my instinctively deer-like form. With some rips and shuffling around, I get myself under control and back to just human shape, panting. 

"This is not a negotiation." Her words were steel. She was already upon me as well, the warm stave right in my face. "You cannot eat humans, even if that means they die." 

I still must have looked completely puzzled because she continued, "I think I understand that whole debacle I saw last night in the camp a little more now. You consumed the second human because your first human instincts told you being remembered was better than dying, right?"

How was it she saw through my actions so easily? I quickly nod to her accusation, remembering there's a magic stave being pointed at me.

"That's not always the case. In her case, Elys or Rokilda, the one who's throat you /didn't/ cut, she could have made it back to the town and been healed, even if her injuries were serious enough for her to pass out."

"But-!" 

Another scorching ray arched next to my face, much closer this time. "YOU..." She calms slightly, "seem like you have some common sense, whether it was those guards or you had it beforehand. You should know now humans don't react kindly to monsters. Pose too much of a threat, and you'll have a lot of trouble on your hands. Even worse, if you're as dangerous as I think you could become, they wouldn't hesitate to burn down this whole forest to snuff you out." 

I quietly listen, my eyes locked with hers as she continues, "I've seen it before. And I will absolutely not let that happen even if that means ending you now. The only reason I'm giving you a chance is because...well... I think you deserve one. Or at least a second one." She lowers the stave and takes a step back, offering out a hand. "You were only awakened yesterday, so I understand everything can be a lot to take in. Whoever awakened you and set you loose was being profoundly irresponsible, allowing you to make all these mistakes on your own without any direction. However, you just so happened to have shown up in *my* forest so until I sort this out, you're my responsibility."

I grab her hand and let her pull me up. She dusts herself off and readjusts her clothes. 

"I am Fodri Vess, Sister of the Lady Fortune. [RG]" She ceremoniously dips her chin and waves her arms. "And you are?"

[MrMistoffeleez]

And you are?

Her words were still jumbling around inside my jelly-brain. I had asked her for time to think on that, as I still don't exactly know who I am. 

"Not just Rokilda, not just Elys either... not just a human.." I groan as my head falls into my crossed arms. I was currently in human form for the convenience of wearing clothes and having belongings at the moment, having sat down on the ground. We had left the cliffside alter and traveled to what seems to be Fodri's home in the forest. It's an extremely cozy home nigh perfectly hidden enclave amidst some trees and half underground. I swear I never would have found it on my own, no matter how many smells I pick up.

NPC positive

Gorgon

Emotions

Celebrate

Several knocks on the door to Fodri's cove indicate a visitor. Judging by the pattern of the knocks and Fodri's reaction, it must have been a secret code for an ally showing up. She almost throws the door open in excitement, revealing a taller reptilian-looking woman outside. She is blindfolded and unmistakably beautiful, her clothes draped halphhazardly on her body, revealing much of the scales on her skin. 

"Phixe!" Fodri exclaims in excitement, and shuts herself and the gorgon on the other side of the door from me. After what sounds like some shuffling and kissing noises, the door opens again revealing the two of them, with Phixe much more modestly clothed to my disappointment. 

"*AHEM*" Fodri coughs, noticing my leering. "This is my wife, Xeiaphixes [RG]. Phixe, this is.. uh.. our guest!" She smiles, holding out her hand and allowing Fodri to guide her closer to me. 

Her voice is forceful, and intelligent. "How are you. I've heard much about you so far." I take her hand and gently squeeze it once before letting go. Her voice, her looks, her touch are all illiciting feelings far too strange within my human form, I flinch to consider merely being a slime for convenience sake. 

"I- uh.. I.. Hello." My stammering abates as they go to seat themselves. Fodri pulls a chair out for her, but she pulls the witch into the seat instead and takes residence upon her lap. 

"Ph-Phixe-! Not in front of the guest!" She subtly hisses, her face turning red with an expression I quickly realizes matches my own.

"Ooh~ You worry too much." Xeiaphixes flits her slitted tongue out against Fodri's neck, who in turn pulls her hat down in front of her face. Her head turns to me, eyes still blindfolded, "Would you mind if I got a look at you? It's important you keep your eyes averted while I do." 

I nodded, but quickly realized she couldn't see my gestures. "Y-yes, go ahead." I turn away, closing all the eyes I have open. 

"Well well, look at you.." I could actually feel the potency of the magic within her gaze hit my skin, as though a gust of wind was billowing through this room from her direction. "Thank you for not peeking, it's always awkward when I end up petrifying those my wife wants to help." The magical pressure immediately subsided, and when I looked back Phixe once again had her blindfold on. I understood her concerns of her petrifying gaze, from what Elys and Rokilda remember about Gorgons or other creatures that can turn things to stone by looking at them. I somehow also found myself thinking if her eyes would be just as beautiful as the rest of her..

"Aaaanyway," Fodri purposefully interrupts my attention to Phixe, "I asked Phixe here to help me with your situation. I have a feeling she shares more of your unique perspective than I do. However, unlike you, she was a human first who became a monster instead of the other way around." Fodri pats Phixe's butt twice, indicating she'd like to get up. Phixe obliges, sitting back down and taking Fodri's spot on the seat as originally intended. 

Xeiaphixes leans her head in my direction. "When Fodri told me about you, I became excited! And if you have any preferences of gender or identity, do let us know." 

I sat still, staring at them with various eyes of various size that open and close on my surface. "Um... I.."  

Fodri's eyebrows furrow in concern, and glances to Phixe. She once more clears her throat, and sits down next to Phixe across from me. "We just.. want to get to know you is all." 

I look down and examine the floor around me. "I... I'm a slime. I'm pretty sure I don't have a gender even though I can... embody, or... become other living things if I eat them." I try to piece together what it is I know and don't know. "So.. I don't think I've become human per se, rather human is now one of the many things I am." I take a deep breath, and continue to think. The human lifespans were much more complicated to unpack, especially two at a time. 

That frustration must have been showing on my face, for a cold, green hand reaches out and touches me. I look up immediately to see Phixe leaning in to hold my hand in her own. Her smile felt warm to look at, even though there was no heat. "You don't push yourself right now, we're just getting started" She leaned back, moving her chair closer while still holding on to me.

"I think you're going to need a name sooner rather than later." Fodri spoke up. "A strong name can act as a tethering agent for your identity. It comes with some downsides, but it sounds like you're going to need one if you absorb entire personalities." I look at her, and asynchronously blink across all my eyes in curiosity.

"Hmmmmm... A devouring slime, a mimicking slime, and a cerebrophage all in one." Phixe let go of my hand and put a finger to her lips. Her forehead creased as I watched her sink deep in thought. "How about... Glysyss?" [RG] 

I thought about it. It sounded good, but it didn't quite fit. I shook my head no.

Phixe pouts and falls silent once more to think. "Y'know... a Dragon's name might work." 

My eyes quickly went from Phixe to Fodri, seeking to confirm how a little extreme that sounds. 

"That might not be a bad idea... They're big enough you could grow into one, plus they're very magically binding. In a good way." She explained. She busies herself starting small fires on counter tops and resting cauldrons above them, pulling jars from shelves and assembling ingredients and components. "Phixe, could you get the Assassin's Brier and Moth Wings?" The two of them set out cooking some sort of potion or salve that quickly filled the room with a dozen strange and mysterious aromas. I could only look on and watch.

"Hold on, but I'm not a dragon. Don't... dragons only get dragon names?" I try to catch one of their attentions as they hurry by me.

"Not so." Phixe spoke, "Dragonic Names are what dragons use to name each other, but one does not necessarily need to be a dragon." 

I pout and furrow every eye and eyebrow I have. "Doesn't that mean a dragon should be the one naming me..?" 

"Also not so." Fodri spoke, "Xeiaphixes here is a Gorgon, which isn't quite a dragon, but it's close. All we need is some magic to close the gap~!"  She frantically ran about, putting things into the cauldron while Phixe calmly closed the jars and put them back where they belong, feeling identifying patterns on the jars and matching them to ones inscribed on the shelves.

"Gorgons are close to dragons? How close? What happens if I meet a dragon? Won't th-" Fodri's finger silences my questioning as she passes by with an armful of ingredients. 

"No more questions." She moves on from me back to the cauldron. "There's one other aspect about Dragonic Names that is important to know. Once named, you and the name become one in the same. This is important for certain magical considerations, such as being summoned or augured." The cauldron hissed and squeaked as bubbles emerged and liquid ran down the edges into the open flame. "And in some cases... bewitched." 

"Wait, that doesn-"

Fodri cuts me off, "Domination by magic by use of a Dragonic Name is almost impossible for the average practitioner to perform, or even above-average. I'm just warning you about it now. Need I also remind you that you are already in hot water? Humans... won't understand what you are. You, Rokilda and Elys, to everyone else you're dead, and some terrible creature killed you. And that makes them scared." 

I was quiet. In that moment, the life experience of two guardswomen informed me very fully about what happens when a lot of people are scared. Both of me has seen it before.

Fodri sighs with her back turned to me, stooped over the cauldron. "With a name, you become similar; familiar. If you stay in human shape, you could easily walk among them undetected. This is the best I can give you as far as second chances."

Phixe gracefully and quietly sits down next to me, once again holding my hands in her own, leaning towards me in a whisper. "Please hear my words. You must trust that she knows what's best for you. I, too, am a monster, and I, too, have taken lives. I..." She struggled with her words, as though reaching into her past was difficult to do, "..I was hunted. I was scared, and alone, and she came for me. She brought me to the light, gave me new life and a second chance." Her grip tightened as a smile shone across her face. "She gave me love. So please hear me when I say, that she does not make these decisions lightly." 

The sincerity in her voice connects me to her through her words. The calmness of her heart through her hands held onto me. I didn't have any more questions. The love and trust this monster has for this human was the last answer I needed. 

"I'm ready."

With one last squeeze and a big smile, I stood up. Fodri had boiled down the concoction into a paste, and drew a circle on the ground intertwined with symbols and runes. She gestures for me to stand inside it. Phixe on the other side uses a knife, letting out a small yelp as she frees blood onto the circle, weirdly igniting it aflame. I had a brief moment of concern before Fodri spoke while quickly glancing over a book.

"One last thing. Phixe will be your Maternal Namesake, given she's the one who's naming you." The fires around me turned gold, and an unnatural wind began to whip around inside the house. Cabin doors rattled as the ground started shaking. Fodri starts yelling to be heard over the noise. "This binds you to her as family! No matter where you are, you can reach out to each other and feel the other's call!" She continues to read until the book's pages are put at risk of being ripped from their binding and she hugs the book to her chest. The wind is getting so loud, I start straining to hear anything else she says.

"This is a lot more commitment than I was expecting!" I call out from the circle, watching Phixe stand perfectly still amidst the chaos.

"What?" Fodri pushes against the breeze to just stay standing.

"I said-!"

A flash of light. A crack of thunder. The smell of ashes. The heat of fire. Phixes' voice echoed through every last inch of my being. I know who I am.

"AXORA VESS" [RG]