Carried as it was, the outsider observed the world around it, using all of the context it had been given to try to understand the things it could see.
And what context it was. Before, there were few ways it could divide things. It versus not-it, where it had been versus where it was, the not-pain of its original existence compared to the varying levels of it that it had found upon leaving, but now, with the knowledge provided by another, there was so much more to learn about and comprehend in the world than it ever could have imagined.
Even just knowing that there were others; minds not its own that were capable of thoughts and feelings different from its own, leading to actions and reactions that recontextualized so much of what it had been through before arriving in that reality. Things that it had encountered had been other outsiders, the same as itself, yet also different. Not just the meaningless actions of a chaotic, ruleless plane, they had been chasing and, in some cases, trying to eat it.
Just the memory was enough to send a shiver through its new form; the knowledge of what had been attempted made what it had gone through even worse. With all of the new information it held, it was aware that there were things it would need to do such as eat and sleep that its old body hadn’t required, but to be aware that something with a mind, a thinking being like itself, had once tried to consume it was far from a comfortable thought.
Instead, it did its best to distract itself with the environment around it while the person who was to become its caretaker carried it through the streets, trying to suggest names it halfheartedly listened to before declining each time, too focused on everything else.
Just knowing what a street itself was felt interesting for what it implied, the presence of an organized intelligent group that needed something smoother than what raw nature could provide, both for organizing how a settlement was set up, along with easing transport, with everything it had learned feeling equally as deep. So many concepts, but they were all built on different principles, which themselves were built on other ideas, and all of them came from the countless other minds that made up that shared world.
That was perhaps the most interesting thing in all it had learned. As it was carried through the streets of that town, it could see others, walking and talking and going about their day. It could catch snippets of conversation which conveyed the fact that they truly were intelligent, independent entities, as different from itself as the other outsiders it had once encountered, as well as Ben, and there were just so many of them. Before, it hadn’t even properly realized that it had been alone; it hadn’t possessed the context to understand what such a thing even meant. But now? Now, it was surrounded by more others than it could have ever imagined.
A turn down another street though and the number of other people thinned, Ben bringing it up to a house, the first it had seen so close, and gave another warning about trying to look cute and making a good impression that it nodded to before going inside, immediately pleased with what it had found.
Before it had left its reality, it had become aware of what it had perceived to be the walls of the universe around it, which had led it to eventually breaking them down to face all of the horrors that existed in the chaos beyond, and since then, it had felt like there had been nothing but infinite, wide open space around it. The moment it was inside though, for the first time, it felt like it had found a healthy middle ground. The walls it had missed when it had left them were gone, but the walls of that building were there, cutting it off from the outside world, making the universe feel just a little smaller and more comfortable while, at the same time, not being so stifling. There was a sense of security that it had been dearly missing, but there was also room to roam, to stretch its newfound legs in a way that its first universe never could have provided it. As soon as the door closed behind it, the outsider gained a far greater understanding of one of the many concepts Ben had taught it. What it meant to be home.
The feeling was so great that it missed some of the conversation going on around it, recognizing the other people in the space that Ben had made sure to identify before bringing the outsider back, along with one other that hadn’t seemed to live there either but Ben had told it about all of the same in the form of his apprentice, sitting with the rest.
“-And it could use a home,” it managed to catch Ben say as it was set down, broken from the distraction enough to find that Ben had gotten to the heart of why it was there, while it itself was allowed to walk on its own four legs, sniffing the air as it did. Smell was as foreign to it as any of its other senses after all, and like both the sight and sound it was getting used to, it was just as interesting.
“That’s not what the system information calls it,” one of the smaller in the room said, Mora catching the outsider’s attention for the comment. “Its race text is garbled.”
A statement the outsider only barely understood either, that at least told it enough to know that it wasn’t being considered a cat like Ben kept calling it, adding a new topic to add to its already existing issue of finding a name for itself, with the one who’d tried so hard to help it find one seeming to having given up, passing off the job so he could continue his talk with the other two adults there.
“It might just need help to decide what it is. Since it doesn’t have a name yet either, maybe you guys could suggest some and see if anything sticks.”
Compared to the names Ben had offered it, for just a moment, getting some different input seemed like it would be worthwhile, but that feeling didn’t have time to last. As soon as Ben said that, faster than it could react, two small, green hands darted out, pulling it in before it could escape.
“You hear that, Mora?” Delair asked in pure excitement. “What should we name it?”
“It sounds like it needs to agree; we can’t just do it willy-nilly.”
“That’s fine, we’ll come up with great names! Can I pick for its race if you wanna think of ideas for what it should go by?”
“Alright, sure.”
“Great! Let's see, to me, you look like a… blobble!”
“What part of it looks like a blobble?” Mora asked, sounding almost as offended as the outsider felt to be offered a name with the root word 'blob' in it.
“Simple! Behold! I lift it up, it stretches out, but when I put it down, it blobs up a bit!”
Seeing how things seemed to be going, the outsider turned its eyes to Mora, looking for help that the boy picked up on.
“Maybe you should try coming up with its name-name, and I’ll figure out one for its species instead. I think you’ll probably do a really good job at that.”
Buttering her up at the end to make the trade go smoother, it worked completely, driving Delair to start listing off far more normal options while Mora faced the outsider as a more faraway look took his attention; the boy questioned the system itself for guidance on the topic.
“Hmm, so the majority of races were either named by their gods or else their names come from their original languages, usually translating to ‘people’,” Mora muttered, trying to take the choice seriously. “And neither really applies here. Mmm, you only disliked the ‘blob’ part, right? The ‘le’ was fine?”
The outsider nodded, relieved to see that one of them was taking things seriously as Mora reached out and gently scratched behind the small creature’s ears, filling it was a level of pleasure and satisfaction that a sense of touch had never been able to give it before then, distracting it while Mora thought out loud.
“Let’s see, then. Not a blob, but you’re cute and scrunchy. Scrunchle…? No, not quite. Srunale, scrundle, scrun… Scrungle! How does scrungle sound?”
In absolute bliss, the outsider was willing to accept anything so long as it could keep getting its ears scratched, locking the name in place as a system notification went off in its head, announcing it as such.
“It liked it!” Mora said in pure excitement, able to see the change in the scrungle’s system information, as well as the change in Delair's face.
“Aw, come on!” She complained, pulling it away from Mora’s comfortable hands. “And you still haven’t accepted any of the names I’ve suggested?”
“You should try to actually think about it, instead of just throwing things out there,” Mora advised while Delair held it, looking deeply into its eyes as she did.
“Fine, I can think about it. Nice and easy,” she said, sounding determined. “So, you decided to be a scrungle, huh? Okay, then your name will be… Dewdrop!”
She waited a moment, turning to Mora with an expectant look that only got a shrug. “Doesn’t look like it stuck.”
“What? But I thought so hard about it,” she complained, pouting and looking defeated.
“Kind of seems like you just randomly pulled a word out.”
“Did not! I thought real carefully! It’s cute, so I picked the cutest name for it I could, and it still didn’t like it…”
Actually hearing the reasoning gave the outsider pause. Unlike so much else that had been suggested to it, at least that was actually a reason and, all things considered, small and cute was exactly what it had wanted to be. A cute name wouldn’t steer it wrong, and combined with other things Ben had tried to explain to it, the difference between young and old mortals, and how children had developmental needs of their own that it was important for adults to fulfill, it gave in. It was billions of years old after all; what was that if not the most adult person in that universe, and its acceptance left a new notification going off in its mind.
“Wait, it looks like it just needed a second to think about it,” Mora said brightly. “It liked the name!”
“Really?” Delair asked, instantly brightened and grew all the more so as the newly named Dewdrop nodded, getting hoisted up above her head as a result while Mora joined in on carrying it, bringing an end to the conversation going on off to the side among the adults with their declaration.
“We gave it a name!” Delair yelled out.
“And a better species!” Mora added with the same excitement.
“It’s officially Dewdrop!”
“Dewdrop the scrungle!”
The rest of the night wasn’t anything short for Dewdrop. Not even a day had passed since it had gained a new body but it felt like it had already worn it ragged, playing with the kids who had named it while also trying to look appropriately cute and lovable for both Sonya and Thera, the two having ultimately accepted it, even if they still harboured concerns that wouldn’t shake so soon, but that in itself was fine. Dewdrop had learned enough from its lessons on the world with Ben. While it personally could devote billions of years to a task, be it breaking down the walls of its reality, exploring the chaos, or running away with all it had, the mortals of that world didn’t exist on such timescales. It would do what it could to bond with them and, soon enough, they would accept it.
But that was something to keep working towards later. With Ben talking Delair home and the rest of them retiring to their rooms for the night, that left Dewdrop to the couch, curled up tightly on it and sinking into the cushion in comfort as it closed its eyes, preparing for one new experience that day.
It knew it was exhausted, and from what it had been taught about the living beings of the world, that meant sleep, leaving only the issue that it didn’t actually know how to fulfill that bodily need. Ben had told it that it would figure it out easily enough, wearing that reality’s biology as it was, but without him there to explain it, the scrungle settled in to wait for him to return to help guide it in the act, not realizing just how unneeded any assistance would be as it drifted off to its first night of rest in its new home.
Author’s note
Tried to revisit chapter 1031 through the perspective of Dewdrop instead of Ben. The poll for next month’s side story should be up in a few hours