The strange blob continues painting the mood...
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The massive Wolf perks up its ears and stares at one of the doors with the tilt-headed curious looks common to all canines. It paces over to the stage and the strange 'entertainer' falls silent. There is a brief exchange of words before the Wolf returns to its spot near the bar. After a moment of quivering, the 'jello' forms a different mouth entirely and speaks loudly in a voice that is curiously neither male nor female. :: Ladies and Gentlemen, there has been a limited and unresolveable bi-location anomaly - a severity three event. Visitors from Miir, your portal has irretrievably trans-located to another locus. Again, this was severity three. The Management apologizes for the inconvenience but they will not be able to re-establish a Miir-Orfallen link until the next pass. If you choose to remain with us until then, all your meals will be gratis. Transition will occur in approximately 4 hours. Our next scheduled arrival at Miir-Orfallen will be 5 days and 16 hours. Before then, we will arrive at Miir-Crux in 3 days and 6 hours. Again, the Management and staff of Crossroads extends its apologies for the inconvenience. :: There are a few groans from the upper level as well as the main floor - clearly you aren't the only Miir visitors here. Its announcements finished, the entertainer picks up the song where it left off. You glance over at your door... and it seems entirely as it was previously. Adjacent to it is a small posted placard you hadn't noticed before but it may have been there all the time. And, in fact, you see placards by all four doors.
The strange creature begins a new tune...
The musician finishes its song to mixed applause and immediately launches into another...
On the raised stage, you see the entertainment - a large, purple-tinged, gelatinous cube that creates a series of 'mouths' that both sing and imitate instruments. You've never heard music like it's playing.
"Well, since they named the band after you, I'm pretty sure you're in it. They've only had a couple of rehearsals though, so maybe they're just letting you have a chance to learn about music first. Maybe you can show me what you have learned." :: Certainly. I have been practicing this. :: EJ takes a moment restructure his mass creating several large air pockets. His surfaces ripple, changing density, thickness, and elasticity as he prepares himself to sing. When EJ sings, he begins in 6 voices, male and female... and the numbers keep growing as he continues. By the end, Nala thinks she can detect nearly a dozen voices. It is an entirely a capella performance with background voices carrying the melody and a female voice carrying the lead. He sings a song of hope which echoes in the plain room.
"I'm glad it's going well. Most human children take many years to learn all the things you have in such a short time. You learn very well. It sounds like you really enjoy music. I hear you're part of a band. Is that fun?" EJ slumps, like a deflated cake. :: I have not seen any people from the band so I don't know if I am in it or not. The mutable boy never told me what 'rock' is... so I am trying to learn about that. It is slow. :: She looked around the room curiously. "I would have brought something for you, but I didn't know what you like. What's your favorite food?" EJ quivers. :: I have learned that my food choices are not pleasant to bipedals. Maybe I should not say anything but since you asked... any dead cellular material is consumable. I found a 'magazine'. I thought it was for a restaurant, but it was for a 'spa'. The dead skin cells produced by 'facials' and 'exfoliants' sound tasty. Sorry if that offends. ::
"Well, I was feeling a little lonely since most of the students have left to go on a field trip. But then I remembered that I hadn't come and talked to you in a while and I thought it might be a good time to catch up. I'd really like to hear about how you've been doing. Are your studies going well?" :: They are slooow. I don't know many things so I watch and listen and learn. I have been learning about music and practicing singing. It is difficult but I am getting better at it. ::
The giant jello mold had been practicing his forms and figuring out what these 'music' and 'singing' things were. These were puzzles that the one biped with the mutable shape left. EJ'd had few or no visitors so he'd had plenty of time to research both, sending tendrils of himself through the pipes - listening and learning. The knock on his door sounded strange - the light pressure wave causing an interesting microscopic rippling effect on his surface. :: Hullo, Nala. How are you today? ::
Down in his 'creche', EJ moves across the surface of the room consuming all the trace cellular matter - a snack. He practices 'talking' by forming air pockets throughout his body then forming holes of various shapes and surface tensions and forcing the air out in measured 'breaths'. Were he not alone, any listener would hear a disjointed conversation between five different voices, two of them singing lyrics from the band practice session.
"And I'm okay now. How about you, EJ? How are you doing? You must feel so confused. I bet being alive was as big a surprise to you as it was to me, huh?" EJ oscillates. :: Before was confusion :: Understand talk is good :: I am clear now ::
"Ah, there you are, Alan. I apologize for my reaction earlier. I was...quite startled. Perhaps we can start over?" she asked, just a shade too cheerfully. :: Hullo M-Nala :: Call me EJ :: Sorry to scare you :: Was anxious to find ::
"And from now on you're going to have to have lunch in the cafeteria like everyone else. It's not nice to steal other people's spell components. Not that you knew that's what you were doing then, so nobody's mad at you. Krays just wanted you to know that those things weren't okay to eat so you wouldn't do it again." The jello sags in the center which gives it the look of a deflated pastry. :: Yes Mrs. Sunwake :: I thought it was food place :: Food in tunnels is good for me ::
"That isn't what I meant, honey, it's just...you have to give her time to get used to the idea of you being around. The way you introduced yourself...well, you scared her half to death. It's perfectly natural that she would need some time to calm down and get her composure back. Just have a little patience." :: Oh :: I was accident? ::
The Jello quakes. :: Had lunch not 'regents' :: Delicious :: Thankyooo ::
He wanders over to where Alan is being questioned by Ephebe's mom, "Hey, Alan, what do you think about rock music?" The Jello quivers, flaring with bits of red. :: Music? What is?:: The beast settles like a bowl of pudding. :: Think maybe MamaNala doesn't like 'Alan' :: Reminds too much :: Call me EJ maybe?::
The quiescent jello follows Mrs. Sunwake obediently. ::Did not mean alarm :: sorry :: Isee Iam unwanted :: I will leave her along... alone :: did not understand before time ::
"Nice to meet you, Alan." she says to the jello. :: hullo, Airgirl. nicemeetyouuu ::
The Eldritch Jello shivers and changes to red hues, deep in thought. It strains through the bits of knowledge it inherited from Nala. It knows that its appearance reminds her most closely of something called Jello. Apparently, she likes it very much. But it isn't just Jello, it is magical... hm... it struggles to define itself. :: I be Eldritch Jello :: Name? :: EJ thinks carefully... a name isn't a description and should be something special. Hm, what about 'Nala'? No, she won't like that.
:: I called 'Alan' ::
The Eldritch Jello, noting the decreased tension from everyone save Nala, happily retains its cubic shape and burbles to itself, listening and absorbing as many words as it can. It begins to hum a complicated tune it heard in the music room... while eating all the mold and mildew in the shower area.
:: Canbebundleofjoy here? Can schoool? ::
It quivers, possibly in happiness? Its colors shift subtly, favoring blues. It's 'voice' grows stronger. :: HEY! Iwanna... I wanna... I want. UOOOUOUOUOOOOUOUU. I wanna e-en-ENROLL! Wannaknow.. ma..ther...mamather... mather! Mather? NALAmama::
The Eldritch Jello takes no offensive action. It retracts its remaining tendrils, looking now like a purple-tinged and quite immense, gooey ice-cube. It seems to watch Vakkler... :: Nofight...nomistake...Iwannawanta...eroooo::
The Jello reforms into a perfect cube, fully half the size it was before. It retracts its pods though it points accusatory tendrils at Ephebe who loudly chambers her 'Emergency Only' round and Asch whose body is sheathed in wispy dark tendrils that don't have positive things to say about his current mood. :: NoloNalaHurtooooIwannaIwannaIwanna... ::
Roo-Spin's kangaroo kick is absorbed by the Jello but the backlash sends Spin skidding backwards 10' feet. Being a dextrous lad, he bounds to his feet narrowly avoiding being brained against a bank of lockers. Ephebe's healing touch does him wondrous good and the cocky shape-changer is back in high spirits. The Nasima-elemental drills a small hole which is widened by a focused blast of bullets from the utterly vexed and thoroughly slime-coat dhampir youth. The Jello, seeming on the verge of responding to Fei's query, has its response drowned out by Asch's hail of bullets and the shadows' swirling, whispering attacks. Nala leaps for the ragged opening torn in its side, but the creature clamps down before she can get more than half her body free. Diplomatic efforts all but forgotten, Fei and Sima try to wrest the squealing blonde from the creature's grip and an odd tug-o-war ensues with Fei, Nala, and Sima all being liberally coated by the whipping Slime-nado, which makes gripping Nala more than just a little problematic. After long moments of struggle, Nala shoots free, rocketing into Fei and both fly/stumble backwards through the rubble-strewn gap into the boy's locker-room. Fei's martial arts skill prevent either of them from damage to more than their respective egos. Fei:
While you'd like to take credit for wrenching the girl free from the beast, you are fairly certain your strength wasn't adequate to the task. You believe the creature let her go at the end. The creatures lets out a sorrowful ululating howl. :: OOOUUOuuououooUOUUOouououUOUOUOUOOOUNALAMAMAMAOUOUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ::
The Eldritch Jello has wondrous control of its shape and allows the Nasima-elemental to make no more than a handwidth hole through its body. It's edges turn even more purple at the intrusion, but it doesn't attack. :: HEY! Helllooooooo whatttwannananddoooothtatatattt? ::
A wall of wind rises up around the creature, picking up a copious amount of slime from the floor which spins through the vortex in lazy, disgusting, ropey, ribbons. Behold a Slime-nado! Passing through it looks to be a truly gross experience. The Eldritch Jello moves a large pseudo-pod like a head, as if watching the vortex in fascination. :: OOoohhhhOOohhhhouuuuoohhhhhhh ::
Roo-Spin reflects briefly that he should have picked something even harder to hit... Despite his impressive acrobatics, a tentacle lashes out to take him. HIT DAM :: Heyy! HellllppppppooooooooooouP! ::
:: OoozooooooHarmusooosososos? Iwannanaaaaaaa::
The women's locker-room explodes in a torrent of action and violence. Two of Nala's posse of die-hard worshippers charge the creature, trying to rescue her. The Jello smacks them lightly and sends them flying. HIT DAM
Ephebe throws down, dodging backwards as she draws her caster and fires a single shot which explodes against the Jello... Ephebe almost hesitates to pull the trigger as the jello looks 'confused' at her speech. It speaks to her as her round slams home. :: Uglyooola? ubbaHerGoylmlm :: feet.
The creature recoils from the eldritch blast but seems unfazed. Its tentacles flicker menacingly. :: HEYaaaaaaaa!! :: Tiger-Spin flies in through the hole from the other locker-room, all fangs and claws. With surprising quickness for a slime, a pseudopod lashes out at the tiger. HIT DAM Undeterred, Tiger-Spin clings to the side of the creature, rocking it. His claws tear horrible rents in the creature. It shivers from the wounds, even though they close somewhat after the claws pass through. Spin sinks his claws in to hold onto the Jello of EVIL and almost tumbles off the side of the creature. :: OOOOooooOOoooooOOOOOOOOooOOOOh :: The creature mimics Vakkler, Sinh, and Nasima forming air-pockets and then speaking simultaneously as all three. Can Jello look curious? This one seems to... :: CrossboooooUseeeeeueuueueueue ::
Fei slides in taking an errant blow from a tentacle before delivering a series of hammerblows to the creature that shakes under each one like... well... a bowl full of jello. His driving blows almost topple the creature on top of the girl trapped within. HIT DAM A legion of Shadows surge around the fighters and swarm the creature. It contorts its body skillfully avoiding some of their attacks. And those that hit have less effect than Krays would have expected. The creatures seems weaker but the cold grasp of the undead seem to have no effect. The students see the distorted figure of Nala rise shakily and move towards the ooze's wall. It is clear that while her clothes are being consumed, she is unharmed. Nala presses a hand against the wall, the slime on its surface moves away from her touch, presenting a firm surface. Her speech draws a quake from the beast and an internal pseudo-pod seems to regard her closely. :: Naaaaalallagetmeooopppppppp? :: It is a strange conversation, cut short by Asch's bullets ventilating the beast, though it is clear, some of the holes were the beast forming passages to avoid the bullets. The creature retracts and condenses in on itself, clearly wounded. Despite the contraction, Nala's space remains the same. It regards its attackers. :: Heya!Iwanna...Iwannaoopoonppnnpn :: Seeing no friendly eyes and plenty of reloading, it defends itself. It shivers and shakes off a thick outer layer of slime sending it raining down across everyone and everything in sight. The slime is bitterly cold.
A young boy, recovering from his Advance PE workout with a hot shower, squeaks as a slimy tendril touches his bare leg. He jumps out of the way as the drain grate and three feet of pipe are piledriven into the ceiling. Masonry rains down as a foot wide column of purple-tinged goo follows the grate up to ceiling height and then starts expanding rapidly. Without concern for his soapy bare body - he hotfoots it out of the shower - screaming his lungs out. The Jello tries to imitate the sound of the fleeing student.
The thick masonry wall separating the boy's shower from the girl's shower doesn't withstand the Jello's 'lovetap'. Masonry in the girl's shower explodes outward as a 10' hole is opened up by the massive blob which pours through the opening like a hell-spawned commercial mascot! A thick pseudo-pod lashes out, smelling students and quickly finding its target. Nala doesn't even have time to pull on her gym shorts before the squelching tentacle pushes through her coterie of sycophants and thralls... to wrap around the stunned girl's hips, pulling her towards the central mass which now forms a column approximately 15' high and 15' across.
Watch it wiggle. See it jiggle! It inspects the saucer-eyed girl then places her within a large hollow in the central part of its body, sealing her off from the world. It looks, for all intents, like a massive hollow jello mold - minus the bits of canned fruit. Horrified students see the nearly naked Nala (it appears the casual touch of the creature is rapidly disintegrating her remaining clothes) through the semi-transparent body of the creature... as if seeing her through a funhouse mirror. It is 'unflattering' to her figure. :: PLPlplplplbublablaNalaNala :: classicuh :: MINEuhuh
Taking the path of least resistance, EJ courses backwards, then down through three elbow-joint pipes, then into a main waste line and up. Roomie! It hits a well-secured grate and decides to 'nudge it' out of the way...
The magical bell rings, ending the first class period and kicking off the mad dash of students to their next classes. Advanced PE students, those that are still ambulatory, head to the locker roooms to clean up and dress for their next class, while students for the Basic PE class about to start, shuffle in, strip down, and begin putting on their gym clothes... The massive Jello slides through the pipes, seeking its target. It's on the scent now. It passes other slimes but they will not speak with it and hurry away. :: bah-buh-looooo :: blor-classicolop-Nala-nah? :: The Eldritch Jello, intellect growing, is confounded and a little hurt by their rejection. We should... unionize. The incidents only add fuel to the Jello's 'discontent'. It streams along to the surface and finds a plate of some sort blocking it's path. :: Uuubl-heyaa!! ::
Hey Guys I'm pressed at work today. I do have something very specific in mind for EJ... who will be making his appearance between the advanced and basic PE classes. I'll try to jump in at a timely fashion.
:: buh-hu-lorpNala-lorp aporp? :: The Jello practices holding air in a pocket within itself and then slowly releases it... trying to mimic the sounds it has heard. Speech
From deep in the midden, a titanic, 180dB belch erupts from the Eldritch Jello shaking dust off the old boiler above it. Full :: blib-blorp bahluuulap? Plorpnap Nala ghullab-mop-lurp! :: The Jello 'frowns' if frowning is even physically possible.
Deep in the bowels of the school, beneath a long-retired steam boiler, is a forgotten and relatively disused midden. There the Eldritch Jello, by scent and instinct, tracked down a large source of consumables that don't bear polite description. Satisfied with this sizable vat of dinner, it retracts its tentacles from its forays and sets to gobbling down its unsavory repast. The Eldritch Jello eats... and grows... and eats... and grows... Scholars, centuries later, roundly debated what exactly happened next. Some said it was a natural evolution spurred on by the growth of the creature. Others, that it was something in the omnipresent magic of the academy that crossed the beast's palate and caused a change. Regardless of the cause, there is no disputing the fact that the Eldritch Jello, in that disgusting midden, became more than an mindless creature. It gained sentience. And while it sat happily dining on the entire midden, it gave a great deal of thought to how it had gotten here, who was responsible, and what it should do next...
Some mild screaming from the kitchen staff erupts when an oozy, nearly transparent tentacle, tinged with purple on the edges, and wearing a jaunty set of semi-preserved eyeballs perched on the tip, comes out of a drain in the main kitchen. It sniffs around, the misaligned and over-sized eyeballs lending it the appearance of a cross-eyed and extremely curious King Cobra. When help and curious gawkers arrive, the snake is busy trying to drag an entire Dim Sum cart down the drain. It succeed in putting a prodigious bend in the solid metal cart and swiping three bamboo steam trays filled with hum bao and shui mai before fleeing the scene...
In the washroom, H'Tor sees broken glass, a pool of embalming fluid, and the tentacle snatching up the last of the eyes like a professional craps player scooping up his dice... and disappearing with them down the large drain in the floor.
With the door opened, the tentacle wraps protectively around the leaking jar and slides carefully around and out the door by H'Tor's feet. The tentacle retracts diagonally across the hall, carrying its precious cargo, into the washroom. The clink of jar meeting stone is heard followed by the sound of glass breaking.
H'Tor's skeletal hand closes on the jar, when the weird 'tentacle' holding it seems to sense his approach and slides the jar to the other side of the doorframe, out of his necromantic grasp! The glass slaps against the frame with a crack, setting the eyes jiggling as liquid starts to seep out of a widening crack. The tentacle pulls harder trying to drag the jar through the door.
The snakey pseudo-pod winds its way up the wall, wraps the corner and touches gingerly on the shelf with jars of eyes, bat wings, and other consumables. It tastes the still air... Jackpot! A grocery store! Greedily it tries to worm its way into the jar of eyes but the lid is on too tight. The pseudo-pod wraps around the morbid jar and carries its sack of groceries back down to floor level. :clunk : clunk : CLUNK : : H'Tor sees that something is trying to pull the jar of eyes beneath the door and that spiderweb cracks are appearing across the surface of the glass...
In the empty, well nearly empty dormitory wing, a snake-like, nearly transparent pseudo-pod creeps from a drain, slides across a hallway and enters beneath the door of a room emitting curious and tasty odors...
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