Mimic Slime Story: Ch5 · 1:43am Aug 6th, 2020
In which a slime learns an emotion stronger than hunger and fear—one that humanity knows only too well.
As I huddled under my accomplice's bed while it slept, I replayed the situation over and over. I examined things from every possible angle. Once I managed to stop being afraid of the building, I used my intelligence to take it apart for the knowledge it offered.
There were more of the hooded creatures in there than just the two we'd been with. In fact, there had been a lot of them. All their cloaks had been the same, though, white with yellow trim.
But what of the two creatures that had invited us? The detail of the metal arm made me curious about how much of them was metal. All of them? No. I'd tasted the smell of two creatures about them. The more I focused, the more I had a new piece of knowledge form. It was curious, and I'd heard my accomplice talk of it.
I hated these creatures.
They may have been trying to welcome us to a meal. They may have been open about their intents. They may even not have a specific dislike of creatures like me. It didn't matter—I hated them.
Sliding myself carefully out from under my accomplice's bed, I oozed toward the door formlessly and created an arm out of my body just long enough to actuate the handle. Once in my own room, I looked through the assortment of clothes I possessed.
There were clothes for both male and female creatures, so I chose male. Males tended to gather less attention, and I wanted no attention at all. Rolling my intelligence through the accumulated knowledge of all male creatures I'd seen, I attempted to pick the most common traits of each and slowly assembled a new form out of them—an everymale.
Dressing, I inspected my form in the mirror and practiced expressions. This was new ground for me. Always before I'd built a form up from another creature and had its own looks to model off. I wouldn't need many, but a few simple ones would be useful.
I left our building, barring the door behind me by extending parts of myself through the gap underneath it, I set out onto the early day street of the city. Walking past the building that hurt me several times, I went unnoticed and unmentioned by those around me. No creature stopped to talk to me and none looked for longer than it took for them to realize I wasn't the creature they expected.
Then I saw them. I struggled to hold my form and keep moving smoothly as they left the hurtful building. They walked along the street in the opposite direction, which meant I had to casually turn—not gaining more than a few glances.
They moved slowly enough that I could get closer to them without standing out, and closer still as the morning crowds of creatures started pushing and shoving their way into the street. The two got jostled by others several times, and it was only when a tall creature in a black robe walked before them that I saw my opportunity.
Neither of the two were looking in my direction, and the big creature seemed to completely ignore them and me. Pushing the two knives through my form's arms, I held the blade-tips just at the end of my palms and stumbled.
"What do you think you're doing?" I turned my form's head to look behind me at some confused creature while extending my arms forward as if to catch my balance.
The blades pushed out and through the soft fabric of their robes, extended through flesh, barely missed bone, and sunk quickly into each of the hated creatures' lungs. Drawing my blades back, a feel of absolute happiness filled me as I turned and stepped away. "Damn idiots pushing and shoving."
I left the two creatures behind me—in the middle of a crowd and unable to cry for help. The book had been right so far as attested to how little noise they made. I was confident that it would continue to hold true and they would cease living shortly.
"What were you doing?" My accomplice didn't ask if it was me. What kind of creature would come to my home?
"Making myself feel better."
It was, right now, heating some of its food on the fire-box in our building. "Interesting body. Did you kill him?"
The question was a little ambiguous, so I decided to ask for clarification. "Kill who?"
"The—the creature whose form you have now." The way it worded the clarification made me feel good.
"No. I made this form from memory. I examined all the male creatures I have knowledge of and made it from the most common features of all of them." The lingering taste of the blood on my knives reminded me. "I killed the two who took us to the hurting building."
"The hurting—You killed the priests?!" My accomplice spun around to look at me, its eyes wide. "How? Why?"
"I didn't like them. I didn't like them a lot. You didn't like them either." I stood up from the chair, not hiding the fact my body wasn't the same as my form, and reached out to the metal it was heating its food in to lift it from the heat. "This is burning."
My accomplice let out air and reached for the metal—which I let it take. "That's why you made this average man form, right? Did you eat them?"
"No. I used knives. One through each lung. Made it look like a creature tripped me and shoved me into them." My accomplice had never liked being close to me before. Always its heart would speed up and its breathing become more erratic. It showed neither sign.
"I'm being an idiot. You took all the precautions, you planned it out, and you did the job in a way that doesn't point to yourself. Why did you kill them, though? That's what I don't get. Yeah, I hated their guts—doubly because they hurt you—but you didn't have to." It was smiling despite what it said, as it poured the contents of the metal onto a plate.
"They wouldn't leave us alone, they made me go into the building that hurt me, and they didn't help when I was hurt. You didn't like them and I didn't like them either." Just bringing up the knowledge of interactions with them made me feel that hate again. "I hate them."
My accomplice turned, its body so close it actually brushed my clothes. "You hated them?"
"Yes."
For some time it just looked at me with interest. "You and about half the city. Today we'll keep our heads down. If you need food, go find someone stupid enough to try robbing you again."
"I don't need food today. I want to read more."
My accomplice turned and picked up its food. "Well, maybe we'll head out to the market later and look for someone selling books. First, though, I do need to eat."
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Hatred.
I know it's a bit cliche to sit it out in front but it honestly is such a driving force in people that it's an undeniable factor in what makes a human, human. That this slime has learned hate and, quite frankly, childishly acted on it, is both interesting and disturbing.
Oh, this won't end well. Especially if the goddess noticed what mortals didn't.
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All the more disturbing that its accomplice, the closest thing it has to a moral anchor and conscience, accepted it acting on that anger. She just taught it that this sort of thing is fine as long as it's careful, which could have some horrible implications later on.