Mimic Slime Story: Ch4 · 2:34am Aug 5th, 2020
In darkness light, and in light darkness. As humans fear that which they do not understand, so the things they do not understand fear them.
How much philosophy is this nightmare of a slime going to learn? Who knows—maybe it should try eating more philosophers?
Knowledge, I had always thought, was something only gained through the application of intelligence, until my accomplice introduced me to reading. Patterns led to structure led to concepts led to knowledge. Even just the pictures on a page of a book gave me knowledge.
The first book it gave me was a guide to wounding and killing. Actually, it was a guide for healing and curing, but what could be done, could be undone. It described dangerous wounds and how to save a creature from them. I studied this in reverse. The wound I'd given the creature with my knife had been inexpertly applied, but now I could tell that while it would have died eventually, the creature would have lived many hours just by holding itself in one piece.
More importantly, I learned how to kill with a knife.
"I can't believe how quick you picked that up. Those damn priests found out where we're living. We're going to have to visit their temple at some point." My accomplice did not sound as excited as I felt at the prospect.
"If you'd like, I'll kill them."
"That would get us noticed quickly. Others will know they're coming to talk to us." It pulled out some coins and started arranging them in a pattern. One at the top, two under that, and three under those, and four under those. "This is their structure. Each pair report their working to the one above them. If two go missing"—it removed two of the lowest coins—"the one above"—it tapped the one directly above and between the two removed—"will tell all the rest."
Looking over the structure, I grasped what my accomplice was saying. "So I need to kill the one at the top. They report up, not down?"
"Right, but there's one above them—their god. Killing a major worshiper has a chance of getting their god pissed off at you. That's not healthy. The trick, if you really want to kill these guys, is to get them while they're going to see someone else."
"Pissed?"
"Angry. Annoyed."
"Thank you." I contemplated this. "Then we will go and visit their temple, we will listen and watch to find out where they're going next, and we will ambush them."
My accomplice looked surprised. "Why do you want to kill them so bad?"
"Me?" Its question had surprised me. "I thought you wished them dead?"
It snorted, an action I'd come to associate as how it displayed humorous negativity. "Nah. We'll get you some more thieves. This city will barely notice them missing, and even if they do, they'll think it's a blessing from one of their gods. That said, it'd be a good idea to get in good with at least one of the religions."
"Are there any that don't have gods?" Reaching out, I tapped above the top coin in the structure. "If there were no god, I could kill the leader and take over."
"None of the big religions then. You better believe they have gods behind them—or above them. Smaller cults are another matter. Some are just a gang that got a bit uppity, but some have darker things ruling them. I guess you could find one of the gangs and become the darker thing ruling them."
"I'm a dark thing?" Looking at the form I was in, the soft white-pink flesh didn't look dark at all.
"Most people would call you that. Darkness, for people, refers to what they fear. Trust me, they fear you." Humor. It was an odd concept to me, and one I was still trying to understand. My accomplice used it often enough that I'd learned how to identify it.
"I fear creatures. I fear them using their intelligence. Intelligent creatures are dark things to me."
"But you need them for food?"
"Correct."
"I guess I didn't think of it that way. Life sucks for everyone, even you. Do you fear me?"
"Yes and no. I fear losing you. You are teaching me more knowledge than I could have found for myself, and with your aid I am becoming more intelligent. You are confusing sometimes, but you always act with intelligence."
A knock at our building's door broke our conversation. My accomplice rose and moved silently to the doorway. As it opened the door, I tasted the mix of smells that reminded me of the first time I'd met the two religious creatures.
"Greetings, Sue, Tess. Given you are now settled, we wondered if you would perhaps like to come and visit our temple—as you promised?" As it spoke, the creature moved enough to rustle its robes and reveal its right arm more. The limb looked like it had metal rather than soft flesh above the hand.
"Of course, we had just realized we had no idea where your temple was, but now you're here, you can show us." My accomplice's words should have told the two creatures that it was anything but happy with the idea. I could certainly tell my accomplice was annoyed.
"Allow us to enlighten you both, then. Please, come with us and share a meal at our temple."
We followed them, finding a much larger building than any I'd seen before that sparkled with yellow metal everywhere. As we stepped inside, however, I felt a terrible pressure close in around me. I felt like what I imagined a creature felt like as I consumed them, though without the consuming.
My accomplice was quick to notice my distress and put its arm around my shoulder. "Oh dear, Tess, are you having one of your incidents again? Perhaps we should leave—"
"Your sister suffers from a malaise? Perhaps a blessing would assist her?" One of the robed creatures moved closer to me, and the squeezing sensation turned truly painful.
"She was"—my accomplice, I knew, was trying to find a way out of the situation while I could barely move or think—"blessed by the Dark Father."
Both the creatures gasped, and the one approaching me backed up. They turned to each other and started whispering. Normally I would be able to hear, but in my state right now I was struggling just to keep my form from devolving. "It is understandable now why she wished not to enter our goddess' temple. Please, go with our blessing—the Father of Dark Night is known to us, of course, and while his followers are good people, we understand their desire to avoid our temple."
My accomplice almost had to lift me, shoving and pushing to get me outside the building. The moment I was in the open air again, I fought off the effects their temple had caused me. "What was that?"
"I don't know, Tess, but you absolutely cannot go into any other temples until we figure out how to stop that." I could only agree with my accomplice and huddle against it. Nothing had ever filled me with such fear as what being in that building had.
As it rushed me back to our building, I found myself wanting to fold up and slide under my accomplice's bed to hide—so that it would protect me from the monster-creatures that wanted to kill me.
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Lab
Ah, so this is one of the worlds where gods are literally real.
This is a lovely reversal!
5329661 This whole story was meant to be a 1-shot to help HiddenMaster with their worldbuilding. Just a little poke at how such a world might work, centered around one of the nasties withing it.
There are gods (new to the world), there are Titans (ancient beings—indestructible reflections of the natural world), and there are dragons (who see themselves as the true lords). The Titans and the dragons fought over the world for eons, their battle never ending because of the ol' unstoppable force meets immovable object ploy. Eventually the dragons used their smarts and arranged for the Titans to sleep—figuring they would gain enough power and time to deal with the ancient enemy once and for all. Then the new gods arrived, with new forms of magic. They took on the dragons and won—losing a few of their number in the process—but locking the dragons up in the underworld.
The Titans, though they slumber, still have agents and minions in the world.
The dragons, though trapped, bide their time until their return.
The new gods live opulently and without a care, drinking up the power their worship provides while bestowing magics and artifacts upon their followers.
I won't say anymore, for there are daily brainstorming sessions to fill in more and more of the story. I will say that I'm trying not to tread on anything major we've built up for the world—there's only so much trouble one slime and it's best friend can get up to, right?
Oh, and yes, having such a monster run home to hide under its friend's bed was something I couldn't resist.
5329671
There's always a bigger fish, even if you have to go all the way up to the divine. Loving both the strange friendship and the deeper look at the world.
5329671
Hot damn, that's some cool lore!
Also loving the Mimic story, shame you can't upvote blogs lol