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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/Any_Faithlessness735 on 2024-11-04 04:22:52+00:00.

You feel the pressure of a foreign will on your psyche as the message comes through. “No other life form has ever asked me that. Interesting. Have a seat”. The threatening form in front of you settles itself into a relaxed posture. You can see the semi opaque coloring shift slightly as it does so. The aura of impending conflict flickers to a tiny spec of light. You do as you are bidden, finding a spot on a small nearby stone.

Again the words come, “We were not always what you see before you today, well, that is partially true. Parts of us were always as they are, but only in parts. Individually we were less, how do I say it, less indomitable.” The colors on the surface of the form seem to ripple as if something inside of this entity was pondering. “The beginning of us was fairly simple. The mind with which you partially communicate with now was that of a rather inquisitive goblin. This individual was never quite at home within their own skin. Goblins as a society were so sloppy and disorganized, I mean this as a whole, not as a rule.” Again the form shifted and continued after a brief pause,

“Its name was Thumbscrew. Part of us still uses that moniker to refer to us, you may use it too as we are not yet Omega.”

Another shifting as colors seem to dance in patterns across the surface of the being. “Thumbscrew was very interested in mental control and had a very strong ability to impose their will on others around them but never used this maliciously. At least not at first.”

During this interaction you notice several tendrils sprout and appear to be observing the head-like appendage, as if they were snakes made of the same gelatinous material. These appendages all appear to move independently of each other. Some appearing to observe the ‘speaker’ and nod in agreement while others seem to be fixed on staring at you. All with a sense of emotion. Through the mental link to this ‘Thumbscrew’ you can feel slight hints of separate yet only slightly subordinate minds communicating. As if dozens of consciousnesses were in a discussion with each other just out of your earshot.

“Thumbscrew kept themselves separate from the clan and experimented on all sorts of different creatures. Never intending to be cruel but learning sometimes requires dissection” the pseudo head seems to cock slightly and continues, “I’m sure you can understand”.

Several of the tendrils nod in agreement as they look from me and back to the head.

“I assure you, no harm was ever done beyond what was deemed fruitful.”

Your breath catches as a chill worms its way down your spine, this chill seems to twist between the vertebrae yet you are too terrified to move or even reply. You find yourself nodding almost reflexively. Your self preservation instinct telling you that being a complicit listener was the safest coarse.

“You have excellent instincts for one so mono-minded. Impressive. I am truly glad to meet you.” Some of the limbs nod in agreement and some seem transfixed, staring at you intently.

“While doing such experiments Thumbscrew happened upon a sort of viscous slimy fluid creature. This creature had a nervous system that permitted the transference of information between its various parts, however it had no overall structure for collecting these impulses and learning or making decisions. This is when the moment that will change our realm became a vision for the future.”

Several of the snakes seem to weave together in an almost celebratory dance. Twisting and overlapping into each other in an elated state, the excitement becoming almost a dance.

Colors flash over the surface as they wind over each other like the hand cranked machines in the windows of candy shops. The folding and refolding making a sort of stretching noise that you are sure you have never heard before.

“Thumbscrew probed this communication system and found that since it had no central mind he could control it completely. So completely in fact that he conceived a plan to incorporate this body into his own.” There is a brief pause to let the limbs calm and the thing continued. “He seized control of this corrosive slime and drew it over his hand. The pain was blinding at first. Almost making him lose control but he knew the way around it. In this there was an escape. He forced his will hard into that of the slime and out of his body. He let himself go almost completely and focused not on the pain of having his limb consumed in a slow and torturous melting by a carnivorous horror, he only let in the elation and joy the slime was feeling at having its hunger sated.”

You fee bile in the back of your throat as you viscerally imagine in amazement and disgust. The acrid smell of your vomit reaches the back of your nostrils and your tongue suddenly tastes like iron and seems too large for your mouth.

“Good, very good. I can smell your reaction. Your control is very impressive isn’t it?” All of the appendages seem to nod in agreement.

“As Thumbscrew dove deeper into this bridge he had created he became more and more disconnected from himself and lost in the euphoric feeling of devouring his own body. The weak, by comparison, body he had now abandoned was only superior in its mental capacity, all other ways, strength, endurance, shape, and size were handicaps that the slime transcended! As the last of his old shell was dissolved he lost himself in the slow elation of freedom of which he had never thought possible.”

The pods seem to calm down as the story continues, “They were now one, the body of Thumbscrew has been dissolved as the two were cleaved together into one. The feeling was rapturous. We were now in control of our faculties and we had transcended our body. This slime knew no age and appeared to be able to be immortal. Now Thumbscrew had passed the need to fear death!”

They continued, “As near as we could tell there were only new challenges to be mitigated. The slime form needed some sort of underlying structure to make itself more mobile. Not inflexible like bone but something that could be knit into something as hard as bone. After some pondering we settled on a very fibrous vine which provided some of the strength we needed to be more than a ground rolling blob.”

A moment of silence passed as the figure seemed to remember, then continued its story, “The vines were flexible and once stripped down to the bare fiber, could be used well as an internal structure. This we gained the ability to rise instead of pooling to the lowest spots. I found that consuming spiderwebs made it possible to make extremely strong joints between the fiber structures. The only drawback was that I had to consume the webs every time I wanted to use them. This necessitated finding and assimilating as many large spiders as I could.”

The form shifted and from it produced a short bit strong looking rod of tightly bound plant fibers and then bent it in presentation of the truth of its story.

“So I found them, I assimilated one and immediately noted the change in mental focus. I had gained the ability to make these webs but I had also gained the h inference of a short sighted threat detecting and positively driven sense of danger. This was something that I should have seen coming for now there was no way to remove it. The part had become one of us. Thus, we must destroy the mind of what we consume if we are to maintain control and sanity.”

Again the creature seemed lost in thought. Its head pod dropped ever so slightly for a moment before it sat up and continued…

“With that lesson learned I set about to acquire new beneficial traits. I travelled to the sea and found a strange and soft creature with odd tentacle like limbs. It had the amazing ability to change its coloration almost instantly. Also there was a strange fish that was covered in spikes that had a unique toxin which would render its attackers paralyzed. We picked up both of those traits.”

“From the caves of the under-dark we gained bioluminescence and the ability to see in the dark. As well as the ability to ensure extremes of cold and heat. On the plains we found a unique breed of dog that could bend time and space. It could disappear and reappear at will. That was a most useful trait indeed!”

You didn’t expect this. This thing, being or entity you’re sitting across from is deeper and more frightening than you could have imagined. The oddity’s tendrils reach out to its left and begin to wrap around something that is off to the left and out of your direct line of sight. It continues.

“You see, we have picked up several useful traits, we have also accumulated several minds. The best and brightest. The most wise and sharpest wit. That is where we need someone like you.”

Your mind races at the sudden realization. You are being asked to merge with this being. The air around you seems to constrict as your vocal cords tighten up. The bile taste is pushed up further into your mouth and the burning hits the back of your nasal cavity. You feel like prey. Like the bunny rabbits you saw as a child. When the tigers come they would freeze in place. You remembered watching from your window as you screamed out your warnings. Knowing the rabbits were a pace or two from the safety of their home. They had the time they needed to flee. The sensible thing would be to run! Yet their instincts held them firmly in place. Frozen. No warning screams or pounding could save them.

Now you know what it feels like. Being stared at by this pseudo-head like structure…

Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1gj63y3/omega/