Comic 1130 - Prepare for the power station
Posted on 25th Nov 2018, 10:40 PM
in Like a Bullet from Behind
Average Rating: 5 (6 votes) /
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Author Notes:
Out of bone.
"It needs to be friggen huge," Caius comments. "I'm talkin', like, heavy as hell. Keep in mind, I'm lab meat too--you make a hammer for regular people, I'm jus' gonna break it."
"If we're makin' suggestions," Michelle adds, "You should keep some blood in it. Not totally hollow or nothin', but... I think I got some ideas, if you can still move the hammer mentally."
It's a tough compromise, making a hammer that's so dense and heavy that only a genetically engineered individual could wield it but ALSO containing enough of your blood that you could possibly move it... but you give it a try. You're not actually sure how well you'll be able to manipulate it with your powers, let alone if you'll be able to use... whatever Michelle's ideas are, but eventually, you finish the hammer.
You use the material in the red to physically push the hammer out into this plane. It's... not perfect. You tried to put a skull on it, but you haven't... really practiced. Making skulls.
"Nah, that's perfect," Caius replies. You do see him wince, just a bit, as he hefts the hammer from the floor with both hands. Having to exert himself just a little to carry it, though, steadily brings a grin to his face. "Yeah... that's it. I dunno if this is tha most metal thing you done, but it's gotta be in tha top ten."
He turns it over in his large hands, the grin maintaining as he gets a better feel for it. "Yeah. Hell yeah." Caius nods, his gaze meeting yours. "Thank you. I mean it. I never used a hammer like this before, but I'm sure as hell gonna learn."
"...Like Thor, first handling Mjölnir," Dr. Finch comments with a smile of his own.
"Really?," Michelle chuckles. "You gotta nerd it up like that?"
"Nah," Caius says, shaking his head. "That's still pretty damn metal."
You, Michelle, Fuse, and Caius head toward the Ilworth power plant. You weigh your options on the way there--the pros and cons of just... flooding the entire building with blood. It would give you far, far more to work with than just a skin bug or a meat golem... but Fuse and Dr. Finch may be onto something about the risks.
By the time you arrive, you decide on a third option, somewhere in between. You also form your armor.
A great deal has been said about 'bending the rules.' You have trouble manipulating blood if it's not contained, but you've circumvented this--maneuvering blood inside bodies, inside the red, even inside a syringe. A lot can be said about what is or is not 'inside,' about what that means in the big scheme of things, but a very different question has crossed your mind--
what is blood?
Does a fibrin mesh and a dense wall of platelets sticking together constitute pure, uncontained blood, in the strictest sense? While your blood was in a needle, you could turn it into skin and that was good enough to 'trap' blood, to make it be 'inside.' It was just a surface composed of what was, moments prior, blood. Can coagulated blood--in a fully gelled form--count as an 'outside?'
You bleed out onto the floor of the power station... and you start to work. You collect blood in the red... and you make a clot.
A big clot.
Around the blood.
You step back from the portal... and shove an enormous blob of coagulation, containing more conventional blood, out into the room.
"Holy shit," Fuse remarks.
"...Alright," Michelle concedes with a nod, "Dunno what I thought was gonna happen, but I'll admit that ain't it. Does... does that work?"
You will the enormous clot to move. It's... awkward, to put it kindly. Lacking proper appendages, you kind of half roll, half wiggle it around. It drags blood wherever it goes, the rough floor slowly shredding at the clot's surface.
...Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. You're leaving a trail of potential viewpoints and portals.
"So now we got blobs," Caius states, as though he's trying to explain it to himself.
Fuse nods, slowly, solemnly. "Look, I know we're toeing the line here, having some real... philosophical discussions about what's metal and what's nerd stuff, but... I really feel like summoning slimes is well into nerd stuff territory."
You resist the urge to tell them you're also thinking about making a wand.
Do it.
On the other, I'm mildly curious how the attempt will go, and thus give my approval.
Mine retrieves a wand
Outta own hand
She can easy now lightninhg bolt your butt"
I'll see myself out.
Also, Take the idea of hammer inc. blood to spears, or knives. A fleet of flying pointy death objects flying through the air would be pretty formidable.
Also I think we may need to make one of these for the home bunker that's got a derpy face and cat ears, like the ones in Slime Rancher.
and cat ears are an even better addition than limbs!
We can probably give it eyes, since it's basically just an externalization of our RED. Tentacles would be better than solid limbs, and easier to manage to boot. Maybe something like octopus "arms" with suckers on them to roll the slime forward would help.
Eyes might be difficult because it kinda rolls and squishes and so they'd never be in the same place, but we could... maybe just plop a bunch of eyes inside so at least some of them are always facing in the direction we need? Or we could add eye stalks coming out the top, like a snail.
I suggest a thin yet durable cytoskeleton made of bone and tendon, to give the thing a little more shape and coherence.
Let's make a mental note for later to figure out where our current limits are with red manipulation. Measured in the standard unit of blood slimes, of course.
Dracolich
because that reminds me of baby red, but like... big
but seriously, let's give this thing some rudimentary appendages for moving and attacking, and some optics (not saying eyes as that might not be entirely accurate)
that thing is definitely taking point
let's proceed!
https://www.schlockmercenary.com
Yes, I know Dr Finch is likely not joining us.