Azure Wyrm

[colourcodedchaos]

HAMMERSMITH

Unlocks: Common European Limpet (P. vulgata), silverfish (L. saccharina), "daddy long-legs" (cellar spider, exact species unknown, family Pholcidae), tissue paper, purple ink gland, Reeve's turtle (M. reevesii).

Current Appearance: A long, thin, indigo slime with a bulbous pseudo-head, rather similar to a tadpole. The bulbous head features many radula teeth, which are now quite a bit longer and look more like teeth-sized teeth.

 

The subject paused in its endeavours. Its size was such that the uncomfortable parts of the hard-organic were causing it to be, well, even more uncomfortable. They pressed and dug into portions, especially now that the subject was bigger than before. It felt bigger, anyway. As such, it tried to wriggle its way out of the hard-organic, since (if nothing else) it could let the limpet instinct take command and consume the rest of the hard-organic slowly. What would it do, though, if there was no more hard-organic to absorb? Why, it would search for more organic. There had to be more. There were many types of organic-with-instincts, all different. The subject needed to take them all into itself... and make itself stronger for it.

 

It scrabbled out of the hard-organic with some considerable effort and settled atop the the hard-round bit. And so, as it set itself down and began to rasp away again, the slime was content... until it was not. The quick-running instinct, the waiting-in-inorganic instinct, and the hard-outer-parts instinct all had ways of detecting organic; special parts that allowed very, very small parts of organic to trigger responses in their instincts. As such, the subject began to cultivate those detectors, its long, thin hindpart growing those cells and drifting in the liquid, sensing for more organic that might be obtainable. It was dull at first, and it would take time for the long-itself to make a suitable sensory organ... but the limpet instinct was in control, and time was very much on its side.

 

(Translation: Hammersmith is out of the turtle shell now and is perched on top of it, eating the bone. Also, his cute little tail is becoming a very primitive olfactory sensor, kind of like a nose crossed with an antenna.)

[Emeelia]

@Tch'ah: Hesitating gave the slime enough time- or better, it gave the giant monster enough time, to disappear and probably not see the slime. It didn't feel like it was being watched, at least. But it did see something else, though it wasn't sure what it was. Some sort of lump behind a patch of short organic pokey things that swayed when the air moved.

Tch'ah

 

Excitement was left now that big-danger was gone, and in place of fear was daring. Mischief shot through its membranes, and with a sudden HOP (not at all graceful, but its two limbs were meant for power, not balance), the slime sailed over the short pokeys to land on the lump. What was the lump? Organic? Did it move? Or was it a funny piece of ground.

[Avialae]

ASTER

 

Right now, the fact that the slime's newly regrown leg bone felt different didn't really matter, since it was still largely useless. Even when Aster was able to use it again, as long as it didn't offset its balance when the slime was using it along with its other leg, the slime didn't think there would be a huge issue with the differences. Though, even if Aster did end up feeling unbalanced, it wasn't sure it wanted to go so far as to break off the leg Two-heads hadn't been able to sever the bone of so it could grow another hollow, denser one to even things out. Well, assuming Aster even could. Though if Two-heads decided to come over to the slime's location it might not matter.

 

With its attention once again turned towards the hostile slime, Aster suddenly realized it could sense another living thing near its location, and the energy signature it gave off was familiar to it. Small must have followed the trail of smoke Aster had made when it had headed over here - at least the slime was fairly certain the familiar signature was Small. It wasn't certain, since all it could tell from the energy signature alone was the general shape of an organic. But at least the new creature, whether or not it was Small, was keeping Two-heads occupied for the time being.

 

Aster wanted to help Small, but it knew that that wouldn't be possible for it right now. The slime still hadn't regenerated enough of the muscles on its legs to be able to walk and as such it would be easy prey for Two-heads. Although Aster had just recently had a full meal, it was already hungry once again - all the food it had eaten had gone towards healing the injuries it had just sustained. The dead organic was big enough that Aster was still nearby it despite not being near the place where Small and Two-heads were fighting. Deciding that the best way it could help out for now was to heal its injuries as quickly as possible, the slime used its forelimbs to drag itself over to the huge dead organic. It took some time, since the slime's forelegs weren't meant to bear the slime's weight, but eventually Aster reached its destination. The slime propped its broken body up on the side of the huge organic with its forelimbs and extended its greedy mouth toward its belly.

 

This side of the huge organic was just as armored as the side Aster had found before, but Aster was saved the trouble of having to break through it again by a curious hole that was present in the base of the organic's tail. The edges of it were covered in the same armor as the rest of the organic, so it definitely wasn't something another scavenger had made. If Aster stuck its snout in far enough, however, the slime could get past the armor and find soft flesh. The slime began to eat again, but more cautiously this time, looking up after each bite for any sign of danger.

 

OOC: Aster found the gator's cloaca (both genders have them) and is eating from there. Also, did she unlock any venom glands or anything from from this?

Edited April 25, 2016 by Avialae

[Booksv2]

Dropping deeper into the wet and flinching away from the pain that keeps brushing against him Crell spins and bites at the thin flat things around him in the darkness. The wounds all over him slowly closing up using the reserves of energy he had been storing the last while.

[Dragonhatchling]

Avisk tried its best to tear at the other head of the two-headed slime that it was pinning to the ground. Its scales shook occasionally too as a warning, if any, that the slime really shouldn't try to attack. It still had that weird poison inside the network of spines and scales that created the odd woody rattle with an actual rattle noise mixture. Avisk's scales changed to a brighter color too instead of a muted brown that had previously blended in to the surroundings. The brighter color now coloring most of the slime's scales seemed to convey a sense of threat, as if the slime was actually more dangerous than previously thought.

 

The slime's tail-pincher closed a little more to ensure a better grip. It didn't need the pinned slime trying to get away more to Unsure since Unsure was still hurt. It noticed too, very slightly between trying to tear apart the two-head's unpinned head, that Unsure was working its way to a larger unmoving thing. Hopefully that would help Unsure, since Avisk was already busy enough trying to be helpful.

[Viirin]

OOC @ Avialae: Nope. Nathair used a combined ability (Eastern brown snake venom + stinging nettle toxin) so you can't unlock anything from it.

 

OOC @ Everyone: Sorry, been sick.

 

@Captain Gunzou: Damirth is insufficiently mentally complex to make a mental image. That has to do with abstract thoughts. (Just so you know.)

 

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@Damirth: (unlocked: marimo) After absorbing into itself, the slime found it wasn't anywhere near as fresh as it originally felt. But it was organic, and inside it. Trying to move up now was difficult, with this spherical thing inside it, making the slime's own mobility decrease. But it was eventually able to slurp itself up into the place the wet was coming from with the hard inorganic ground. The wet tasted better here, less... the slime wasn't sure. But it felt colder too.

 

@Aster: (unlocked: crocodilian stomach acid) Though easy to consume from this spot, it wasn't all that easy to dig for more, since the plating of the creature's tail and other areas were too tough to simply shove out of the way while it ate an easier meal. But the colored puffy was disappearing, and the slime could see it was Unsure after all, and it had the other slime pinned down. But then a thing appeared and smacked Unsure in the face, and stopped it from attacking. The thing was long and pink, and was coming from under a short plant with a lot of foliage. Looking back at the small two-headed slime, it wasn't there anymore.

 

@Tch'ah: It was organic! Not only that, but it was soft and cushiony. Comfortable. Dense. Not super dense, but it was from what the slime could tell at this point. Whatever it was, it was bigger than the slime, and organic... that couldn't be enjoyed more. However, something was funny about it. It had little inorganic things sticking in and out of it.

 

@Hammersmith: The air itself moved. Though still imperfect, the detector sensed something nearby, maybe a few of the slime's own lengths in a direction... that way. Vaguely. Whatever this thing was, it reacted to the moving air, and... if the slime could have seen and understood, it might have thought 'billowed'. Though the slime was not intelligent and would have chosen an incorrect word. Whatever it was wasn't known, nor could it be, until it was within the slime's genetic repertoire.

 

@Crell: The annoying ribbony organics swayed and moved, or at least that's how the slime felt them. Whenever the slime tried to bite them, they moved away. Maybe it was the slime's imagina.... mouthful! The thing was caught. All of this salty everything everywhere all the time was getting to be a hassle though, so the slime decided to ignore it from now on. It became as so much white noise. Biting through this stuff took no effort, and the slime could tell that this organic was very long. It had been bothering it for awhile now, so it must be at least... the slime couldn't think that deeply. There was enough.

 

@Avisk: In the midst of almost grabbing the slime's unpinned head in its mouth, the slime was interrupted and its attack halted by a pink thing appearing out of no where, and hitting the slime directly in the eye. It was a long pink thing, and the slime couldn't tell more than that, or where it was coming from, since now it couldn't see in that direction at all. The force of the impact, or maybe just the surprise of it, had made the slime's head aim upwards instead of down. Two-Heads had been wiggling a lot, and this interruption made the slime lose concentration for just long enough for it to get away.

[Dragonhatchling]

((Viirin, Aster is Unsure to Avisk... Avisk is Small to Aster.))

 

Avisk called out mostly in shock and surprise, but also as an after-thought for maybe Unsure to help if this turned sour. The slime tugged its head in the opposite direction of the pink thing, swinging its tail to try and grab part of the pink in an attempt to make it let go, or prevent it from pulling the slime toward it more.

 

Where was this coming from anyways? The way the slime was, and with the pink covering its eye closest to the origin, the slime couldn't yet tell where this was coming from. That would mean turning its head, and that could mean giving it an easier time of pulling the slime toward it.

[Captain_Gunzou]

After devouring the marimo Damirth decided to head farther along and find something that would react to it. While this organic was cool, it didn't react to Damirth so he lost interest in the area. He went to head on to the next area.

[Booksv2]

Dropping through the wet around him still Crell shakes himself and finishes healing himself from whatever had been hurting him before. Swimming forward and through the wet into more of the thin things that brushed against his side he spent a few minutes snapping and eating the mouthfuls he got from this. As he does so his body lengthens and things some, just enough that the fin on top of his back hardens and sharpens in some way he isnt sure about. But along with that change his back fin changed into something also more rigid and when he tried it out it shot him forward so fast as to be uncomparable.

 

Shooting through the water and not used to it Crell smacks into some of the thin things he had been eating and because of that and tumbling though the wet he tangled himself up in them for a second before the spines all over his body and the sharpness of his new fins cut it up and let him out.

[colourcodedchaos]

HAMMERSMITH

Unlocks: Common European Limpet (P. vulgata), silverfish (L. saccharina), "daddy long-legs" (cellar spider, exact species unknown, family Pholcidae), tissue paper, purple ink gland, Reeve's turtle (M. reevesii).

Unlocked Senses: Smell (not terribly sensitive)

Current Appearance: A long, thin slime with a bulbous pseudo-head, rather similar to a tadpole. The bulbous head features many tiny radula teeth, while the tail is a very primitive olfactory sensor. It is also a deep, rich indigo in colour.

 

The subject took in the new information, and the limpet instinct thought it was excellent; the organic absorbed via the sensory cells was technically making a net profit. Its inherent idleness was shouted down, so to speak, by the swift-runner instinct and the hard-outside instinct together, and the swift-runner instinct took command. The slime began to move, pausing at occasional brief intervals to let the sensor cells point it in the right direction, and began to seek out the air-mover organic.

 

Where once there had been stimulus-response... there now was firm and noble purpose.

[Avialae]

ASTER

 

The slime tried to reach in the opening with its clawed forelimbs and rip out edible pieces from under the armored parts once it had cleared out all the organic it could reach with its head and neck alone; it was hard to get pieces big enough to satisfy Aster's appetite, however. There were more hard stabilizing organic bits inside the dead organic here, and while they were perfectly edible, the slime couldn't wrest them loose.

 

It was then that Aster saw the pink thing attack Small. What . . . what even was that? Was it flesh? That was the only thing that the slime could imagine it could be, in any case. It hadn't come across a whole lot of pink things in its admittedly short lifetime. But what was the point of ejecting some of your flesh at another creature?

 

Well, the important thing was that the pink thing had attacked Small. Aster should help, and it had even seen where the pink-making thing had went . . . though it wasn't sure it had recovered enough yet to do so. It wouldn't be much help if it couldn't walk, after all. Though . . . there was a lot more material covering the bones of its legs now. The slime just wasn't sure if it was enough to walk on. It wasn't too worried about Two-heads. Now that it could see the strange slime, Aster realized that it was much faster than the other one. As long as it didn't let Two-heads catch it by surprise again, Aster would be fine.

 

Again, though, that didn't matter if the slime still couldn't walk. Moving its forelimbs out of the opening in the dead organic and gripping tightly against it, Aster shifted its posture so it was now gingerly supporting its weight on its injured hindlegs, ready to stop doing what it was doing if things didn't work out for whatever reason.

 

 

[Emeelia]

Tch'ah

 

The slime was fairly certain that inorganic things were not supposed to go inside of itself, but it was not certain how to absorb the organic while avoiding the inedibles poking in and out of the food. The slime bounced a bit on the cushiony thing to help it think. Thought processes were difficult, complex, too slippery to solve such a strange problem. The slime stilled, and gave up; thinking too hard hurt right now, it was hungry, and maybe there wouldn't be such a big problem while it tried to eat? (Heh, big, because it was bigger than itself! Funny joke.) The slime gooped and tried to consume.

[Viirin]

OOC: Just wanted to let everyone know that I didn't update last week because I was preparing for today. I won't update this weekend, either. I'm going in to surgery in about an hour, and will be super unconscious for quite a few days. I'll update when I'm able.

[Zeditha]

((So, I finally got around to coming back here... Sorry for my long absence. I've discussed some things with Viirin, so this should be ok; please let me know if I need to edit anything.))

 

Zeditha opened her eyes, and slowly got up. What had happened? After a brief look around, she realised that she was still in the underground cave. It was dark now, but she could see that the glowy stick from earlier was still faintly illuminated. Some time must have passed - perhaps she fell asleep? Considering that she was lying awkwardly on her side, trapping a wing under her body, that was probably the case. She stretched and got up; it was undoubtedly time to move again now, and find Runner and Small. As she moved, she noticed a sticky substance over some of her feathers - that must be from the stick she'd bitten. Well, it was annoying, so she had to remove it. A few licks later and it was gone - time to go.

 

Zeditha turned and followed her previous path to reach the outside of the cave. She couldn't see any sign of the other slimes; they'd probably moved ahead. She let out a cautious squeak first, though, just to make sure - no response. Zeditha took to the air and looked around. Where could they have gone? She waved her tail in annoyance. They'd left her behind, with no way to follow.

But then, something caught her eye. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but the air seemed... thicker? In one place. Moving closer, she realised that the thicker place stretched out, moving away in one direction. Maybe it was a trail! Clacking a few times in happiness, she began to follow the thick air.

[Dragonhatchling]

((Viirin asked me to make sure everyone is aware that he's still in recovery from surgery but will update later this weekend.))

[Viirin]

OOC WHEW! I feel a lot better. Even better than I did before surgery. I'm back!

 

@Books: I'm not updating you until you know which 2 characters are remaining active.

 

@Dragonhatchling: Your character on The Escapist is now considered inactive due to the obviousness that the site is dying. If I can pay a programmer to build my site and forums, we can finally do the move I've talked about for longer than I wanna admit, and Sevak can become active there.

 

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@Avisk: The pink thing let go of the slime's eye, and retracted to wherever it had come from. The slime's eye felt like it was starting to swell, but it could still be used to see. Two-heads had disappeared, and it was heard scurrying away. But there was another sound too, a quiet rumbly sound coming from the direction the pink thing came from. Why did that thing even appear?

 

@Damirth: Something cold that made the slime feel as though it was burning began to touch it. It was a liquid, though very little of it. But since when did the amount of a chemical matter to a slime? The slime instinctively avoided the burning cold liquid, and felt the wall to its side slope upward at a very steep angle. It had little pieces of organic on it.

 

@Hammersmith: The slime didn't feel anything touching it when it gooped around in search of the thing that was billowing earlier. But it did find something that was flapping. A piece of something thin and long, light and soft. In the excess of all of those descriptors. It touched the slime on its top, and then wasn't there anymore. Then it was, and wasn't. It did this a great many more times.

 

@Zeditha: Most of the trail didn't exist anymore; but there were tiny traces of dense or taste or color here and there, so the slime was at least able to figure out when it was going a wrong direction, but it couldn't waste a single second. Whatever it had consumed earlier was wasted; too much time had gone by between breaking the stick and consuming its fluids, and its effect was gone. But the dense-looking air seemed to go far away; and the slime was losing the path quickly. But it could at least tell that it went towards a dark-colored foliage area that looked like it might be wet. At least that's how it looked from the sky. It seemed like it would take a while to get there, but the slime could do it.

 

@Aster: It was painful, but the slime was still healing itself and knew it. The new meal was helping that regeneration and energy recovery rates, but it wasn't entirely combat-ready right now. But seeing the pink thing retract from Small, the slime saw that there was a strange creature covered in scales but with flowers growing along its back, hiding under a nearby plant, seemingly trying to use the thin layer of organic from the top of the black water to hide it more. It had worked earlier, but after that attack, it wasn't going to work again.

 

@Tch'ah: (unlocked: German shepherd pattern, dog legs) The slime didn't know what these little inorganic things were, but now as it consumed the organic, it noted that the inorganics were spherical and bore a flavor that was dusty and felt... some of the organic had an overbearing taste of this dustiness, all around a wide hole. This lump was much bigger than the slime had originally thought it was... which it now saw was probably because the thin organics all around it were so tall, and the lump was in a depression in the ground.

[Avialae]

OOC: Glad to hear you're feeling better, Viirin! Also, about Dragonhatchling's and Books' characters on Escapist - I know you have versions of the roleplay going on Magistream, Petadoptables, and Nationstates as well as here; if the two of them are willing, would you be open to moving their characters over to one of those sites as an alternative to having them go inactive?

 

ASTER

 

Its feet could be used to stand on, more or less, but they were not done. The slime lifted them off the ground one after the other in order to alleviate the pain it felt somewhat; its balance was good enough that standing on only one leg did not bother it that much. It kept its gaze firmly on the new creature it had spotted that had attacked Small with the pink whatever-it-was; fortunately, Small didn't seem too badly hurt by it. Two-heads seemed to have disappeared somewhere, which was good. Aster didn't need another thing to worry about right now.

 

Whether or not Small was hurt, the strange creature had definitely attacked it; yet Aster wasn't sure whether the two of them should fight back. There was something definitely slime-like about the creature, namely the different types of organic - they looked a bit like some flowers (thistle) Aster had learned about before, although these were a different shape - that seemed to be growing out of its scales. But were they really growing out of the creature, or just covering it like the rest of the thin layer of organic from the black water? To tell for sure, Aster would have to get closer, which it didn't want to do at the moment with its legs still repairing themselves. That part of its body was very vulnerable at the moment and Aster didn't need to get them torn off again. Small didn't seem to be in a great deal of danger at the moment, either, with Two-heads gone, since this flowery creature didn't seem to want to attack right now. But nonetheless, Aster had become curious about this organic that possessed both flowers and scales, and wanted to learn more about it. Slowly, the pain it felt in its feet as it touched the soft ground not letting it run, Aster circled around to the strange organic's behind, hoping that it could get up close to the other creature before it realized that the slime was there.

 

 

[Viirin]

OOC @ Avialae, Books, Dragonhatchling: Yes! That's fine. NationStates is really quiet as you can see, and I'm sure ChloeCat would like another player on PetAdoptables. I'm getting ready to open the RP on GiantInThePlayground, but since at work I'm hiring a programmer and 2 artists (one for azure wyrm!), I'm not sure I really should put it somewhere else new if I'm just gonna make my own site finally.

Also, Books' computer is in the shop so that is why he didn't respond anywhere for awhile.

 

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@Aster: It wasn't a very functional idea. The slime was only able to see the maybe-flower-slime or pink-thrower or whatever it wanted to call the thing when it was both overhead and at an angle that the plant it was hiding under wasn't... over it. Well, it was always over it. But sometimes the slime was in the air over that, so it couldn't see it. But it seemed to back up slowly with strangely shaped rear legs, moving in a way that was humorous. But then it aimed away into the black wet and... the slime didn't know how to describe this- but it almost looked like it could fly without wings. But then it dropped into the wet with a splash and was gone.

 

@Avisk: Before the slime could figure out how to approach or what to do about this annoying thing, it backed up in a way that was so confusing that the slime couldn't act. But then it turned and jumped further than the slime thought it ever could, and fell into the black wet and was gone. The two-headed slime was gone too. It was finally just the two slimes again! The two slimes with huge amounts of organic.

[Emeelia]

Tch'ah

 

It was difficult to eat around the inorganic; after all, slime wasn't very useful for pushing those dusty clods away, but seemed more to suck it up and through along with the organic. If only, thought slime distantly, it had limbs on its front to help it eat more efficiently. And with the need arisen, changed sparked through its DNA, and the slime paused in its consumption as below its eye-organs congealed thick, viscous tissues, pushing itself out into a bump. This was uncomfortable, the slime decided as it rested itself on its haunches rather than its normally preferred leaning-forward posture.

 

(Forming: duck bill mouth. Also, as a general rule, when transforming it is best to transform as little as possible per go, yeah? Like form a mouth, and later work on the rest of the organs in a digestive system bit by bit?)

(Also, I'm really glad that you're in better health now, Viirin ^u^)

Edited June 9, 2016 by Emeelia

[colourcodedchaos]

((I'm sorry for not posting, everyone. I've been really ill, the girlfriend's just had a major organ removed, and half-term means a shedload more hours at work. Gonna try and get a post up tomorrow.))

[Viirin]

OOC @ Chaos: You're an awesome girlfriend to take care of your girlfriend even when you're beat up too.

 

@Emeelia: Yep! Exactly right. And thank you.

 

@ Everyone: Please privately message me even if you can't think of what to post or whatever. I wanna do a headcount because of what's been going on around the world lately.

 

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@Tch'ah: The hard and rounded-off new forming thing wasn't really helping the slime with picking out the... hey, there was something... the slime started to feel strange. Harder. Less flexible. Heavier? The slime could see some of its own form, and it was starting to turn a strange black color and the color and immobility started spreading further and faster throughout its form.

[Avialae]

OOC: Hey, Viirin! I'm OK, and still here. I've been both busy in RL and waiting for others to post when I do get on, so yeah.

 

ASTER

 

The slime knew instinctively what the scaled flowery creature had done, it had even done the same thing itself when its legs were healthy, but having never been in a position to observe itself, it took a few moments for Aster to recognize the action of the other creature for what it was. Though perhaps the method of how it had done so was less important than the fact that it had disappeared into the dark wet . . . perhaps to chase other organics? The big dead organic was good, but for some reason Aster wasn't gaining as much information from it as it felt it should. Its corpse was just about the biggest organic Aster had ever seen, so the only way to go to recitfy that issue was smaller.

 

Aster hobbled over to the edge of the dark wet and peered in, trying to see if there were any organics inside it. The darkness of the wet prevented it from seeing much, so Aster waded in, surprised when the coolness of the wet soothed the pain in its regenerating feet somewhat. Even now that it was deeper in the wet, the slime still couldn't see anything and was about to give up, when Aster saw light gleaming off movement in the wet a little ways away and heard a brief splash, and realized that that was how to find prey here.

[Emeelia]

Tch'ah

 

The slime was frightened, unsure that changing from transparent to translucent to opaque was a good development, especially since it was making the slime not able to move. In fact, it would have been certain that this was a very bad thing, except for that immobility seemed to accompany any new, normal physical developments such as its limbs and its eyeballs. It decided that eating the organic should have to wait, all activity should have to cease.

Edited June 17, 2016 by Emeelia

[Dragonhatchling]

((I'm not dead or otherwise.... I've got a new job and that's been keeping me plenty plenty busy- but im still here

 

@Viirin: Avisk also is called Small by Zeditha, and calls Zeditha 'Kind'. I noticed those additions to the mass sheet ))

 

Avisk watched Unsure as it waddled around in the wet. What was it doing? It seemed to be looking for the other weird organic that had attached the sticky to Avisk. There was bigger organic to feast on however, why wasn't Unsure doing that?

 

The slime moved over to the bigger organic, delving into the same spot Unsure had before to get some sustinance back. It heard a splash back a little bit and looked to investigate, noticing Unsure also noticed the sound. Avisk chirruped a little, asking if Unsure wanted to investigate. They should stick together with the weird dark wet and odd creatures around. Especially since Two-Head had disappeared.

[colourcodedchaos]

HAMMERSMITH

(List goes here when I'm not on my phone)

 

The subject could not help but be intrigued about the flailing, swishing not-itself it was sensing, and closer investigation was deemed necessary by the controlling instinct. It put on a burst of speed, moving as fast as it could to catch the organic and attempt to absorb its tantalising matter.