“It’s ok, buddy, you’re safe now.”
The little guy rotated his mushroom-like head like he was looking around. The location must have amused him because he emitted a noise. If I had to describe it, I would call it a happy trill, like a bird purring.
“Do you know why I chose you, buddy?”
confused trill
“It's okay, buddy. They aren't here. They can't hurt you, not while you are with me.”
happy trill
“I'm guessing you are too young to talk, but you do understand me, right?”
two affirmative trills
“I can deal with this. They wanted to hurt you. Do you know why?”
confused and scared trill
“It’s okay, buddy. I promise they can’t hurt you. You did something big. Do you remember that?”
Apprehensive trill
“It’s ok buddy, I’m not mad. I’m glad you did. Can you see my interface?”
confused trill. Pause. Disbelieving trill
“Yeah, that's a big thing. But it's okay. I'm willing to bet you get at least some of that benefit. My soul is indestructible, and I'm pretty sure you are a permanent part of it now. I would be surprised if that didn't apply to you. I think we are going to be friends for a long time.”
super happy trill the little bugger even spun in a little circle and collapsed into a puddle in my hand before reforming into his mushroom self.
“So buddy…..ok we need to give you a name.”
dipondant trill
“Yes, you will still be my buddy, but you need a name.”
understanding followed by inquisitive trill
“How about puddle?”
no trill
“Francis?”
Hell no trill
“Shade?”
Completative trill followed by fuck no trill
“Ok…..no to that. What about simple? How’s Ink feel?”
pensive trill
neutral trill
agreement trill
excited trill
“Ok, Ink it is. Fitting for an inkling. Now the question is, what can you do?”
Ink was determined to show me as his whole self dissolved into my hand. I could feel him coursing through my body, up and down each limb and across my torso. Across my head, even. He lingered under my eyes for a second. As he was there, he left weird marks under my eyes. It took a second, but as he was moving on, and they were dissolving, I recognised them as runes.
“Wait. Hold a second,” he froze in the middle of my neck.
“That thing with the runes under my eyes. Remember that we will use that once we get a proper ensemble. Speaking of, can you make me pants?
Confused and angry trills
His last trills echoed in my head. I could feel him. We were one in a way. He was hungry. Neophyte meant newborn. He had no experience or material to work with. The problem was that I was material-less, too. Or was I?
I pulled the leather coin sack out of my inventory and took a closer look at it. I could feel Ink’s hunger as I took a closer look. It was a circle of leather with a simple braided cord that cinched it. I felt as if our minds were one as we looked at it. Ink wanted to eat it all. I had to temper that desire with my other abilities. He practically scream-trilled in my ear as I pulled out one of my blades and sliced off a piece of both the cord and the leather. I had to flex a muscle I didn't know I even had to prevent Ink from rushing down my arm to devour the leather.
“Hold up a second, bud. I have to see if I can learn this material and make more. If you eat it all, I can't do this.”
resigned trill
“That’s a good bud.”
Much to Ink’s delight, I focused on the small pieces and activated my destruction skills. I took my time and focused as I watched raw mana tear the sack and cord pieces from together. Despite being created from a dungeon skill, I still got a feel for the materials. I didn’t quite get the cord, but I was pretty sure I knew enough to recreate basic hide. I was about to cut another piece of the cord to try again when my hungry little friend broke loose.
He manifested as a series of tattoos rushing down my arm towards his prize. I watched in astonishment as a dark layer of purple ink covered the remaining hide and cord. The ink receded, leaving nothing behind. I'm pretty sure I even felt the little bastard burp.
“So Ink.”
aware trill
“Now that you have eaten, can you make me some pants?”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Confused trill
understanding trill
I literally felt him probe my brain for what ‘pants’ meant. It was like a COVID test but worse. Way worse.
I felt ink, liquid not entity, but also entity, pool out of my abdomen and lower back. He started to stretch towards a pants-like shape, but it proved too much and the ink receded to a nice self-portrait on my abs. From the ground level. Hanging chad in full view. Probably Ink’s first memory of me. It was disturbing but touching. I reached into the connection we had and pushed the general shape of a loincloth.
determined trill
I felt the fluid shift, and boom, I had a loincloth. I was finally not one hundred percent naked.
“Ink, bud, that is amazing. Don’t worry; I’m going to feed you all the things. You are my personal super suit!”
happy trills
I now had at least a loincloth. I noticed two things about the loincloth. Ink had replicated the coin bag leather in near-perfect texture and color, using roughly the same amount of material but doing so in a near-perfect way.
“Hey, bud, are you able to materialize still, or is all of you busy behind an epic buttflap?” I felt his trill and a sensation of him sending a tendril up to my arm. He got as far as my bicep and manifested as a small splotch. It kinda looked like a bad prison barbed wire tat.
The longer we were connected, the more back-and-forth I started to feel. As I looked at the bicep splotch, I had a flash of disappointment, not at Ink and his abilities but at his current restrictions. It was just a flash, but I'm sure he felt it. I sat on the ground without thinking.
“Oh shit!” and leapt back up.
“I’m sorry, Ink. I kinda sat on you.”
amused trill
“Ahh….ok….if you really don’t mind.” And I retook my seat. I could still get a hint of shame from him.
“It’s ok, buddy. We just need to get you more stuff to eat and get you stronger.”
determined trill
Ink’s determination was semi-inspiring. I'm sure we were going to have a few bumps along the way, but I would tease out the mystery that I started in the land of the Ink People. Why did the young purple’s presence aggravate the rest, and how much trouble was I in? I decided to ask Ink, knowing full well I probably wouldn’t get an answer. I checked my menu for the ability to see if anything had changed.
Familiar ( Violet Inkling
Ahh, a lot had changed, and it looked like the interface tossed me a bone with a little bit of lore and what felt like a quest trigger waiting to be pulled. I started to pick the new information apart. First was the clarification of the type. Ink was a Violet Inkling. At first glance, I thought it said violent. Either way, I could get behind it. I’d seen black, red, and blue. My brain instantly went to red and blue to make purple. Ink made a violent wretching trill in my head as the image of the red queen getting kinky with the bear pup started forming. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, bud, that was more than some ‘kill the bastard’ hate they sent to you. That would have been from the king. What they did was more ‘kill them all and salt the earth behind them’. That was the fear, the more that I think about it.”
Contemplative trill
As I considered the whys, I felt Ink’s trill and a subtle buzz from my menu. A quick peek revealed my first quest.
Quest-Why the hate? Find out why Violet Inklings are hunted. Enduring Quest Awards will be generated as you progress.
“See that, buddy. You got us a Quest!” His happy trill brought me joy.
“This is why I choose you, buddy. It wasn’t really a choice. I may not be the nicest person but I can’t stand assholes that abuse their power over those with none. They have to be able to put up a fight. It may not be a fair fight, but give them the dignity to try. Plus, I loved your subtlety. You got all the way to me without anyone noticing. They all would have made fine companions, for a time, but only in you did I see the potential for the long haul. I don’t know how long I will live, but I will make you stronger. Strong enough to wipe the floor with Vals arrogant ass.”
happy-determined trill
With that settled, I started explaining who I was, where I was from, where we were, and hopefully what came next. Ink was confused by my mentions of Earth, saddened by my initial loneliness, and intrigued about the rooms ahead. Mostly, though, he was hungry. When I talked about the loot I got, he was super intrigued. He was young, so I didn’t know how that would limit his capacity or even how to grow it. I assumed that our soul binding was different than the typical agreement. I wondered if his ability to enter my skin was part of that. I'm sure that Queen Kinky would have at least tried that to accentuate her intimate hard sell. Questions for another day, perhaps. I pulled one of my coins out of my storage, and despite knowing I could do it, Ink gave a terrified trill.
“What’s wrong, buddy? Is it the coin?”
shy negative trill
“Where it came from?”
yes-no trill he followed this up by generating an odd sort of poke near where I pulled the coin from inventory.
“Ahh.. It’s an inventory power bud. You can take a look inside if you want.”
I felt him send a tendril to where the portal—I guess you would call it that—formed. He touched apprehensively and instantly recoiled.
“Are you okay, bud? You can go in there if you can. I don't know if it's safe, but it's your storage, too!”
He made another attempt, and I felt him just penetrate the barrier when the worst thing happened. The portal’s power sheared off part of him. I expected him to lash back in horror or at least pain. Nope, he went and did it again. I felt another piece of him enter the storage and get cut off. As I watched, closer cut off was the wrong word. He was detaching a little blob of himself in the storage. I followed the path into the storage, allowing my inherent feeling of it to fill my vision. I could see two little blobs of lifeless violet ink just there. I was starting to worry when I felt him tug on the inventory power. It took a little mental nudge from me, but I watched, astonished, as the two pieces melted seamlessly back into the tendrils of him reaching through my arm.
“I see, bud. It looks like you can store extra mass of yourself in there, but you’ve got to promise to ask before you eat the stuff in there.” His affirmative trill made me feel bad for even suggesting it. I went back to focusing on the coin in my hand. I was indecisive about how I wanted to proceed. I could try to destroy and learn the material, let ink eat it, or focus on using my create and transform skills to make more clothing.
I decided to split the difference, literally. I tried to cut the coin like I had done with my blade earlier. The metal of the blade scratched the gold without effort, but actually cutting the coin in half was a much more difficult proposition. Also, the blades were not the finest tool to work with, and, despite being in the recovery room, I did not want to risk cutting my hand off. I could feel Ink’s interest as he watched what I did. I don't think he had full access to my abilities, but I think he could get some utility out of those that were similar to his. I never saw functional eyes on any of the three others, so I assumed they had some sort of passive vision or blindsense similar to my Aura of Perception. I'm also sure I felt no chunky bits as Ink absorbed into me, so I'm betting no organs either. I didn’t try to use my Sense of Object on him, mostly to respect our early relationship. I envisioned him as a sentient swarm of microscopic life forms, but honestly, he could literally be sentient ink, a subtle fluid of sorts.
I tried to bend and break the coin, but it was incredibly resilient to my attempts. I was able to get a few degrees, but nothing more. It was time to ask the expert.
“Ink, how much material do you need to eat before you learn it?” A very low hum-like trill followed by a short normal trill. I interpreted that as ‘I'm thinking, I want a lot but really only need a little.’
“Ok, let’s try this.” I took my blade, carved a shaving off the coin, and held it in my hand. I felt my loincloth mostly disappear as he brought more of his mass up to well around the gold shard. This time I focused all my eyes and magical perception on the interaction. Ink formed a sort of bubble around the sliver. I think he kept it open so I could watch. Thousands of micro tendrils launched at the bound sliver. I could feel Ink pulling on the metal, trying to rip it apart. I also felt a pull from the mana coursing through my body. It was a tough fight against heavy resistance. Did Ink need my mana?. We were bound, so what was mine to give was his to take. I willed the mana to release, slowly, and just a small amount. I watched as the mana flowed through his tendrils and caused the gold to dissolve. The purple tendrils around the cocoon turned gold for a second and then returned to their stable color. I felt a warm, satisfied thrill from Ink. Looks like he learned gold. Now it was my Turn.