Alert Adventure (My horrible writing for Springrelms)
Aeneas stood over their latest ship design. It was a complicated vessel, it had to be to achieve the speed they desired under the strain it would require to get it to said speeds. They moved out from under the panel they were working on, having adhered a new plate that was designed as their request from Moriboca and Basilla. According to the two, it would withstand any pressure that Aeneas cared to put it through. “Well, we’ll just have to see about that now won’t we?” With a nigh on evil glint in their eyes Aeneas let a fraction of the force that was their domain loose upon the plating, high pressure and a good amount of gravity, with the added friction of the wind it would have to deal with. Much to their disappointment, the plate first buckled, then shattered, all the shrapnel stopping a few feet before striking the god of Vessels, all the kinetic force having been cut from the shards before striking.
With an aggravated sigh, Aeneas swept their hand across the air, casting the shattered pieces into a bin in the back of their workshop, planning to return them to Moriboca later. “Hopefully they’ll be able to use that for something.” Shaking their head Aeneas let out a wistful sigh, before mumbling a string of curses under their breath. “THE DESIGN IS PERFECT!” They screamed in frustration, scattering the plans aside. Raising their hand to use their powers to help vent their ire, they paused hearing a soft cough coming from the entrance to their workroom. Turning they saw the figure moving to them, though flowing might have been a better word for the easy elegant motions. Sighing Aeneas shook their head, moving a lock of their red hair from their face. “What is it you want Acinum, I’m a little busy here.”
“I can see that…. If I may be so bold, I might have a better use for your… ire.” Acinum said in that strange flowing way they used from time to time, causing Aeneas to tap their foot as they waited for them to get to the point. “You remember that…… favor I did for you a…” “Yes yes yes I remember. What is it you want in return? As you can see I am QUITE busy with my current project.” Aeneas interrupted, wishing the other god would just be more direct. “Yes well… I have a bit of….. an infestation at my current base. I was hoping…. You might take care……. Of these annoying….. Critters. All my attempts have……. Had no effect….. And they refuse…… to listen.” Acinum finished, looking to Aeneas with their ever shifting shades of blue eyes.
“... You know what? I’ll do it! I need something to blow off steam right now anyway.” With that Aeneas disappeared in the blink of an eye, taking, as they referred to it, a short cut. Emerging in the domain of Acinum, Aeneas could not help the feeling of being in a fishbowl again. Being underwater didn’t hinder the god of motion per se, but the pressures of water were not as comforting of the pressures of the air and gravity they were so accustomed to. Surging through the water Aeneas looked for this “infestation” that Acinum had spoken of. It didn’t take to long before they saw a large green blob of some sort in the waters.
With a wicked smile Aeneas got to work, surging around the mass at speed, as they moved around it they subjected it to greater and greater pressure, making the blob that had been quite large down small and smaller till it was hardly the size of Aeneas’s hand. Spotting several more of these creatures Aeneas repeated the process, subjecting the things to pressures one would only find at the very depth of the ocean. Once the creatures had all been compacted, Aeneas gathered them all up, taking them to the surface and to land, not caring to stay beneath the waters anymore.
As they stepped onto the land however, they could feel the creatures they had gathered moving about, resisting the pressures they had employed to gather them all up in one spot. “What in the….. You should be crus-” The sudden shock wave cut them off as the slimes suddenly grew once again, though only to a fraction of their original size. Aeneas just stared at them, utterly baffled for a moment. “... Why you little!” Gathering up the strength of a gale force wind Aeneas blew the shrunk slimes into the rocky outcropping of the beach, slamming them into the rocks with enough force to cause spiderweb cracks to appear along the surface. Turning to go home, figuring that no simple creature would have survived an impact with that much force behind it, Aeneas paused as they heard a sticky bouncing noise behind them. Turning with a look of disbelief Aeneas saw the slimes bouncing around, a fraction of their previous size once more, but bouncing around without a care in the world.
“You little…. Alright, you might be more sturdy than you look, but how about this!” With a wave of their gloved hand, Aeneas lifted each little slime into the air. Closing their fist slowly they started applying the same conditions they had recently used on their platings to the slimes, watching as their bodies shrunk further and further. Soon the little pests were crushed down to the size of a small pebble. With a victorious grin Aeneas made to leave when she saw the little pebbles suddenly spring back to their previous size again, going back to bouncing around.
“Are you freaking kidding me?!” Aeneas let loose at this point, lifting a random slime up and bashing it with every force they could muster, slamming the creature over and over, but no matter how hard it was hit, slammed, crushed, flung about at high speeds, even flinging it high into the air, letting it freeze in the freezing temperature and sending it hurdling to the ground wasn’t enough to destroy the stubborn little thing. Possibly the worst part was, after awhile it started looking up at Aeneas with those murky green eyes, a look of “is that all, are you done yet?” in them.
It felt like it was hours later, though it had only been one as Aeneas collapsed, breathing hard. They could still hear the slimy bouncing noise as the slime they had tried their hardest to flatten bounced over so it was at eye level with them, looking at the god questioningly. “You know…. I… could just…. Throw you into the void right?” Aeneas managed, catching their breath as they spoke. The slime jiggled a part of its body in what seemed to be a shrug before giving them another look. “What, are you saying that’d be cheating?” The slime bounced around, seeming to agree with that statement. Aeneas rolled their eyes, laying back again and looking up at the sky, shaking their head. “I’m getting sassed by a ball of jelly…. Me, the god of motion and vessels.” With a sudden burst of energy Aeneas sprang back to their feet, looking down at the little blob. “You know what, I like you shorty. You're like me, won’t let anything keep you down. Still…. I did say I would get you and your little friends out of here…..” Aeneas glanced down at the slime again, and couldn’t help but smile as the slime looked back up at them with a “I’d like to see you try” look.
“Alright, that's it, I’ve decided you lot are coming with me. Who knows, might be fun having someone I can throw at things and not turn into a fine paste…. Well a finer paste. Ow hey!” The slime had bounced quite hard into Aeneas’s gut, not hard enough for it to hurt really, it took a good bit more then a small cube of jelly to do any real damage to a god, but it was enough to get their attention. “It’s not MY fault you're a little ball of... hey!” This time the slime bounced up high and landed on top the god’s head, the viscous slime getting in their hair.
“Not the hair!” Aeneas cried out, grabbing the slime and throwing it up high into the air, wiping their now slime coated fingers in their pants legs. “Uuuuugh, it's going to suck getting tha-” They were cut off again as the slime, coming down from being chucked into the air, chose to try and land on Aeneas’s head once again. Grinning victoriously Aeneas looked up at the stuck blob. “Ha ha, fool me once shame on me. You wanna get at head high, you can just cool your jets up there!” Aeneas chuckled to themself as they walked over to the other slimes, gathering them up in a small bundle, glancing up every now and then to see the slime trying to angrily bounce at them, the little murky eyes glaring daggers at the god. Aeneas just stuck their tongue out at the trapped slime, teleporting themselves, and the rest of the slimes to Aeneas’s own domains.
Acinum was not precisely….. pleased at Aeneas’s solution, that any further slimes that they encountered Aeneas would gather up. It was only two weeks later that Aeneas received another visit from the aquatic god. This time they were complaining about a new type of slime, one not quite as resistant to kinetic force as its kin, but one that was immune to heat and was just as unkillable as its kin. Excited for this news Aeneas teleported over without even waiting for the other god to finish. As they arrived they saw clear signs that Mori or Moriboca the Furious as their full title went, had been on a bit of a rampage.
Several places had large gouges in the ground, some were even molten, then there were the pools of molten rock, just starting to cool down. Bouncing around the craters were new, red black slimes, a haze of heat coming off their bodies, the grass burning up under them with each bounce. As Aeneas got close, the little slime that had been interacting with them the most, they one they had started referring to as Alert, bounced from the little field they had set up over their head, Alert having claimed the space above the god as its own personal riding spot, and bounced it way over to the new slimes. The larger magma slimes tried to bounce onto Alert, who just bounced forward under them then bounced high up into the air, mimicking the times Aeneas threw it into the air before coming crashing down onto the magma slime, hitting it hard enough that it shrunk down till it was smaller then Alert.
Alert turned and shot a look at the other slimes who all flinched at its gaze. Turning with a very pleased with itself look in its eyes it bounced back over to Aeneas, hopping back up onto its perch, much to the bemused amusement of the god. “I take it you're telling them you're the boss hmm?” Aeneas laughed as Alert made an affirmative burble, shaking their head. “So long as you remember who’s the boss of you.” Alert gave Aeneas a withering look, making the god laugh once again, shaking their head. “I see you have made….. friends with these……. new pests.” Aeneas let out a sigh upon hearing “Yeah, they look quite different, and look at that they're immune to the lava like you said! I can’t wait to get them back and see if it's just the molten rock or if they're actually just completely resistant to heat in general.” Aeneas flashed the water god a sly grin, ignoring the fact that they looked quite annoyed both due to the property damage, and the fact the slimes had not only NOT been dealt with, but had even been made into a variant.
“If you're going to try another god, I would advise against it, I mean, look at what happened here already. Though…. A new variant might be quite handy…” Aeneas was perhaps having a bit too much fun poking at their godly counterpart, but it wasn’t often they had the chance to annoy the god of waters quite so much while maintaining a seeming of innocence. “Well you don’t have to worry in that regard. I talked with Moriboca, and the only other god they thought could take care of these ones was Basilla, suggested that they might be able to make a poison that would take care of these things. I however, won’t be seeking to owe them a favor after the last time.” Acinum’s tone had gone from the peaceful ebbing style of the beach, to a tone much more similar to roiling, boiling water.
Aeneas couldn’t blame the god for being reluctant to asking for Basilla’s help again. The last time the return favor was to let them test a new concoction that was intended to help clean foreign bodies from a body of water, something the ocean did itself if at a slower pace. The effect however, was much closer to turning the water into an acid, making it completely uninhabitable for any forms of life, decimating the population of squids that had made that area their home. Even once the area had been cleansed of the effect, Acinum had not been able to find any surviving squids. “Alright, tell you what, I’ll take this lot to my place as well, and our old deal still stands, even if you tried modifying it behind my back, sound good?” Aeneas couldn’t keep the slightly smug smile from their lips as Acinum grudgingly nodded, seeming to melt into the waters on the shore as Aeneas gathered up the slimes, taking this new batch home to study.
Weeks passed since the creation of the new slimes. Aeneas found that the leftover residue that resulted from their rather rough play with the slimes (more often than not Alert who was their favorite target for chucking around) was very malleable, being able to shape blocks of the stuff, and not only that but the stuff was quite obnoxiously sticky (much to Aeneas’s regret with Alert bouncing into their hair whenever they wanted the god’s attention). Using the new materials Aeneas had started upon designing a new type of craft, powered by an engine that could generate infinite propulsion, if not a high amount of it, and only in one direction, but the idea had a ton of potential that the god wanted to explore. Often they ended up passing out on top their designing table, under the new engine, or just sprawled out on the floor of their work room. Often Alert ended up sliming up Aeneas’s hair to wake them up, getting flung into something for their trouble. Once awakened in this way Alert would often bounce push Aeneas to their bedroom, glaring up at them whenever they protested and bounce pushing harder, much to Aeneas’s annoyance and amusement. “I can take care of myself you know” Alert would just roll their eyes, bounce up onto their perch and glare at Aeneas till the god actually got some rest.
Life proceeded in a similar way for years, Alert sticking to Aeneas like glue. Together they completed several projects, harassed the other gods, tormented the villagers who prayed to the god (Alert always seemed to think they deserved praise to, leading to every depiction of Aeneas having a little slime floating above their head), even made several improvements to the slime engine with only a minimal amount of catastrophic failures. Everything seemed to continue in this way, until the betrayal of three gods led to the end of everything.
Aeneas and the others lay in wait, having had a tip from Philopos the all-watching that there would be a plot to destroy the Spring of Souls. It was not to long before the fears of their fellow gods were confirmed. Who started the fight has been lost, Aeneas themself could hardly remember once the chaos began. It should have been a fairly simple fight, it was 3 against 9 for crying out loud! Sadly, with gods nothing is ever simple. Once the fight started, it was all too easy to “accidently” hit an ally, to get revenge for perceived old wrongs. Before too long what had been a fight against those who would protect the spring, and those who would destroy it, devolved into a free for all battle among the gods as a whole. Before the fighting became too chaotic, and all hell broke loose, Aeneas launched Alert far from the fighting, not wanting to have to worry about protecting their long time friend when just staying alive would likely need all their focus.
Alert, as one would imagine was infuriated by being parted from its partner. Determined to get back to the spring, to help Aeneas take out those lousy other gods and get everything back to normal. It took a long time, far longer that Alert was comfortable with, the large blasts of energy, fire lights and just, every force under the sun, and at times it seemed even the sun itself was being thrown about in the distance. Several times the ground beneath Alert shattered, falling and breaking away into a vast empty void, requiring several tricky bounces to keep ahead and move past the falling grounds. Thankfully, as the ground, water, trees and everything else fell away, the chaos ahead at the spring seemed to be dying down.
Figuring Aeneas had kicked the other's butts, Alert bounced along even faster, eager to go slam into Aeneas for throwing them away and not letting them fight alongside them. When Alert reached the meadow that housed the spring though, it froze seeing the utter devastation. The very fabric of the world seemed to have been warped, large swaths of the ground tainted, burned away, just gone with no trace, and empty void where dirt and grass had once been, and worst of all, a lanky, redheaded body, an arm slashed to tatters, and a leg looking as if it had been melted off.
Letting out a frantic keening noise, Alert rolled along the ground, not bothering to bounce as it raced to Aeneas’s side. Rolling through blood, bouncing over cracks in the ground and pits of molten rock Alert made for Aeneas, who lay broken so near to the spring, clearly having been trying to defend it to their last. Alert rolled under Aeneas’s still intact hand, nudging against to get and wake Aeneas up. Alert nudged into the hand a few times, not getting any response. Rolling back Alert jumped onto Aeneas’s chest, bouncing up and down a few times, starting to let out some panicked noises as it desperately sought some response. No matter how many times Alert bounced, or how hard, Aeneas still did not move. The once murky eyes started to turn a clear green as Alert’s eyes started to fill with water, leaking down as it tried one last thing, bouncing onto Aeneas’s hair, the one thing that had never failed to get Aeneas to chuck the blob away. All that happened was Alert got even more coated in the blood pooling beneath Aeneas, the little slime keening as it tried again and again.
Slowly Alert started turning the color of blood soaked mud, Aeneas’s blood being pooled into its body to replace the water it was losing. It might have been moments, could have been hours for all Alert could tell, before they heard the sound of one of the bodies lying on the ground getting up. Turning, its eyes ablaze it looked to the god Placitos, the one who had started this ordeal. In the god's hand was a small vial, and they were making their way to the spring.
Enraged at seeing the God that started this whole thing, Alert threw itself at Placitos, intending to strike down the battered god. Placitos lashed out with the remainder of their power, seeing to divert the slime so they could reach the spring. As they lashed out though, only the red from Alert was struck away, the small mass of emerald green that was left came crashing into the god’s face. As Placitos cried out from the blow, the green mass slid down the gods throat. Coughing and gagging, Placitos clawed at their throat as they tried desperately to breath, the concoction forgotten and dropped to the ground in the gods panicked clawing.
Placitos continued to struggle for air for a few more moments before collapsing to the ground. The green mass slowly pooled from the gods mouth, seeping back into the ground near the spring. The remaining mass, stained red once again, looking the color of blood soaked mud, congealed for just a moment. Looking around at all the dead bodies, the shattered ground, and finally back to the body of Aeneas, the little mass looked to the spring instead. Remarkably, it seemed the small area around the spring itself had been spared from most of the fighting, the ground past Aeneas still covered in fertile grass. Rolling past Aeneas, Alert couldn’t help brushing against their god one more time, looking at them with its clear eyes again before bouncing into the spring, slowly dissolving in the waters it had been born from. The greens and reds slowing fading into the spring.
