582. Joy, 7
Some of the skeletal mice and rats also tag along today.
I make an effort to sit but I won’t be able to stand much.
To the extent this creature can understand my wound, I ask Blume to reveal it to her.
My leg looks gross and I’m the one feeling the most uneasy looking at it, while the skeleton in front of me doesn’t affect me much.
R - I’m sorry for you and Nokarlık but I won’t be joining you for walks today.
The colourful slug looks around, raising its head. I see the faint glimmer of threads from it to the skull. The skeleton moves slowly and unsteadily.
R - Nokarlık, show it around, would you kindly?
Nokarlık looks at me, and then it, obviously puzzled. I smile to her honestly. Her inner flame returns with it.
Seeing my bones shocked her, for obvious reasons, but these ones are a different thing. Now her curiosity and excitement are allowed to return.
The hair on her pelt softens as the warmth. She lets go of me and rises next to the puppet.
Her appearance next to it a little sudden spooked our guest slightly and its puppet lost its balance.
Nokarlık caught it before it fell and helped it resume its walk. It’s probably somewhat akin to helping a very old and frail person to walk.
Nok scrutinizes everything of it as they move around our home’s main and wide room.
I look at my child and our odd guest walking around and looking at the various things we’ve accumulated.
Nokaranlık showed it what the bricks were for when the slug showed interest in them. Nok built a tower piling them up. The skeletal puppet even tried itself at it. The hands were trembling and the whole body struggling to keep balance with the weight of a brick added. The hands and fingers lacked strength and accuracy I noticed first.
Nokarlık can use all of her fingers independently like anyone human, or even other primates probably. But this doll has too little muscles and sensitivity there.
Its master can’t control such a huge body, which is probably its new record in size for a doll, with quite a complexity to it and details.
Plus it might be a difficult concept for a slug, to move many different fingers at the end of an arm.
It takes a long time, and all of Nok’s patience and assistance for the doll to successfully pick up a brick and put it on top of a tower.
R - What do you think of them Blume?
B - They look like children, they want to learn things and play.
I giggle as I agree.
R - Can you try to communicate with that slug?
Blume’s vines and leaves rustle a little. Now that she’s awake, she might. She’s trying gently.
B - I could communicate simple ideas, but we don’t share any language for more complex thoughts.
R - It’s not a being-like-you that could read and learn directly from a human brain hm? It’s a dünyanin çiçek.
B - Indeed.
The stiff hands of the doll try to grab another brick, but it slips again. Nokarlık helps. They’re playing together now.
The flesh over the bones is in thin muscles and ligaments, minimalistic and inaccurate.
R - How does it work? I see no heart in the ribcage. Is it like your vines?
B - It’s more cold blooded but still is animal. I use magic mostly to move, and other tricks. That’s closer to real animal flesh this thing uses. She’s a crafter of flesh like Nightmare, your intuition was correct.
R - But no heart? Nor mouth?
B - For that creation, it’s not needed.
The slug probably regenerates the tissues in its nest somewhere and feeds them there. Like a machine.
Hm.
With everything happening around us, I hope Nok’s learns to value and protect her own flesh regardless.
I grin, happy as a mother watching her child playing in a park.
Her friend looks spooky, but all I see of it is the small creature that it truly is. Colourful and soft looking, and smart.
R - This... Hm...
B - Why are you beaming so much?
R - Am I? Oh, I was thinking that rather than being my newest friend in this world, this slug might be Nokaranlık’s first one... Which is a sweet thought to have, don’t you think?
The idea is more charming in its concept than in its picture to look at, but nice nonetheless.
Nok’s mimics some of the movements I used to do for her as she helps the puppet to walk around.
I feel a little lonely as I’m left behind unable to walk. I feel a new pinch in my hollow chest. I scratched it mechanically. Blume noticed.
B - I’ll be there to scratch that itch for you before you know it...
R - Hm... One last waltz in the kingdom of light, shall we?
B - What an odd thing to say.
R - Then... Will you walk by my side once more, my dearest companion?
B - I shall my sweet, in happiness and in gloom, around heaven and hell, and on Earth too occasionally.
I hold her flowers like a hand in mine.
We shall, until we meet someday our fate.
We look aside toward Nokarlık. The night is beautiful. And we’re happy to see sun and moon rising again along this way.
R - I love you, you know?
B - Wait till I can smile. I will make you feel thirty years younger again.
I laugh loudly. The slug and Nok turn around toward us to understand.
I blow her a kiss. Mom loves you! She smiles back before returning to her play.
Her first friend hm...
R - I wonder how they all are doing. I’m missing them.
B - I’m pretty confident they’re doing well...
R - Yeeees... Say it...
B - Because there’s no wild rose to rain chaos over them.
I slap the flower. Bad flower. Not that I wasn’t expecting that tease.
R - Meanie little flower.
B - Hag.
I laugh, and slap the flower gently again. That was a good one, demon closest to my heart.
~
