Creatures Caves

Written by Savannahs11 for the CCSF 2016:

Savannahs11 wrote:
This is just a tragic little thing about what happens when you put a Cupid's Halo on a creature and then leave it around in a Wolfling Run. It's based on an actual creature I had.

Anyways, let's start with the story!:

At first, Clang had been happy. He was content to wander the Bridge and eat metal carrots, occasionally socializing with creatures that happened to leave their terrariums. However, he soon realized that he was leading a miserable existence. Creatures he got to know were often too stupid to survive after wandering off on their own, and would starve to death soon after coming to the Bridge, not knowing to go back to the terrariums, which were far more suitable for living. The silver halo that had been attached to the young Gaius just before the Hand disappeared entirely meant that he could never die or age, not even when he should have been dead ten times.

Creatures generally weren't that smart, and Clang was no exception. when he strayed from the Bridge to the Aquatic Terrarium, things went downhill fairly quickly. There was nothing for him to eat there, and although he suffered from the pain of hunger and became rusty from the humid beach air, the halo prevented him from dying. Eventually, he found his way back to the bridge, but the organ controlling his drives had long since failed by then. This was how he would feel for the rest of his life. Hungry, lonely, and bored, mentally incapable of truly satisfying these needs.

Clang endlessly seeked out methods to attend to his drives, but nothing worked. Not even when he ate the metallic carrots to extinction. Not even when he played with the Norns' ball until he walked into the pond with it, drowned several times over while chasing it, then listened to the radio play the same song on repeat until it broke. Not even when he was surrounded by creatures of all kinds coexisting peacefully. One day, the last of his organs failed, and he was reduced to little more than a shambling zombie endlessly walking into a wall.

The Hand came back one day, but Clang didn't know it. He wasn't aware of what was going on. He just constantly walked into the wall next to the replicator, not thinking or feeling anything. After the Hand set things right with the Norns and created a sense of order, it turned to Clang. It took the halo off of him...

And he fell down.

Thank you very much for this story, Savannahs11! It is rather tragic, perhaps a well-spoken warning to creatures about temporary and incomplete immortality? I enjoyed it nonetheless!