Thread: Shapeless Heart [Jeufufns and Sigr]

For a moment the slime was afraid that it had scared the woman off with the change, something unfathomable for the creature, as it was about being more like her, but Emaline's hands soon returned to the slime's face. There was an element of discovery, of exploration, of curiosity in that touch, but the slime also felt something else. Care? Worry? For the creature such notions were hard to pin down and give them an specific meaning based on its short lifespan and the minds it has consumed, an act that chased its mind. The pair walked together for a while, with the slime trying to decipher the expressions Emaline made every time she looked back. The slime partially understood duty from its days as a mindless weapon, and worry, after the things it has done, but the emotion it felt easier to understand from the complex range that appeared in the woman's face was curiosity. The slime wanted to learn, wanted to do good even if it had a hard time what good was supposed to be, so it will have to know more of the world beforehand. That same hunger for understanding, the eagerness to discern things beyond the self was what the slime saw in Emaline's face. Reaching the settlement was an information overload, as the slime fidgeted restless, even if it still followed that kind woman. It was hard to take it all at once. It was the first non natural environment the slime had been in since the lab it was made in, a place where everything spoke of purpose, from the crude pathways to the rustic houses, it seemed a different yet similar extension of the idea that permeated their life. While the slime adapted to its surroundings changing itself, those people lacked the ability to do so, but what they could manage was changing said environment to better suit their needs. It was fascinating by itself, making the slime wonder if it could do both things, and the vast range of choices that such a thing opened. And that was only the beginning, since more complex, varied and interesting than the surroundings were the people that crafted them. So many people, so different beyond the craft that covered them. The slime felt like it could start to see patterns that matched the people it had met. The heads were more or less composed of the same stuff even if it was differently shaped and colored. The bodies, even if weren't two alike, seemed to have the same amount of items on them, or so the slime thought until it saw some diversity in the number of lower appendages and those bulges in the midsection. Learning to difference clothes from body was getting easier, and it was still a mystery how those women were below those garments. Confused and eager to experiment, the slime wanted to try those forms, to see what suited the moment, but remembering the gesture of surprise if not fear Emaline had shown with such a small change, it decided to stay as it was, even if that borrowed form only brought bad memories. Joining the woman inside her house, the slime looked around to all the small trinkets and tools, all that stuff that the people used each day. There was a practical side to them, their purpose mostly clear as the function defined their form, so the slime could only wonder what was the purpose of the things that didn't seem to have one, like the jewelry the woman wore. Eat the slime echoed, knowing what it meant. It didn't need to, even if it well knew that consuming other beings could gift it more knowledge, it didn't want to. But those people had to eat something else, as it had seen them garnering different plants around, so the slime was eager and curious to try those kinds of things. But such search for knowledge, for experience, soon was clouded by a new discovery, part of what Emaline's clothes were hiding. It seemed that people had a whole complex set of things down there, from a meaty and soft looking shaft to a couple of lumps under it and a quite interesting set of lips even below. What was completely lost for the slime was the purpose of those things. It had seen how legs and arms worked, how hands were versatile, and more or less understood what eyes were for. The mouth was still tricky, the nose seemed to serve no purpose and the ears were also weird, but at least the slime knew that they had to do something, as they looked intricate in design and were free of covering clothes. After all, what use did those parts have if everyone had them clothed? As Emaline covered herself and returned with a bowl filled with something that the slime couldn't identify, the slime soon understood her gestures. So the mouth wasn't just for talking, but eating too. The slime had no need to put food in an orifice, but it complied anyways, slowly emptying the bowl in her mouth, soon absorbing it in its form. Eat the slime nodded. Now that she had complied with the request, the slime hoped that it could learn more about... well, everything. Language. Language the slime repeated, nodding to the woman. It wanted to learn the words for things, to be able to properly communicate. Without a way to understand each other, there wouldn't be a way to learn more. Run it said, mimicking the motion in place. Eat added, repeating the gesture Emaline had made. Something... the slime said doubtful, pointing at the pots that Emaline retrieved food from, then the bowl she had given with that food. Something. Eat something. We eat something the slime managed to compose, pieces of words gathered here and there. It had an easy time garnering the meaning of things, even if it could get confused, but it lacked the words on Emaline's language to give them sound.