Ooze: The Quest for Sentience (IC)

[un_known]

Taken from the notes of Theophilius Alphagetti

Day 247 – Final Product of Brewing

You are ooze, a failed experiment by your master called Theophilious Alphagetti. He had attempted to create a gelatinous cube of unrivaled power. One that would allow him a bid for control within the Academy of the Arcane Arts but alas it has failed and he has succumbed to their wishes.
Every graduate of the Academy of the Arcane Arts must teach an apprentice before they are finally free of the school. And to Theophilious’ dismay he has been given the child prodigy Caevon Rimefire. This child prodigy is a disaster for Theophilious as he won’t stop pestering him with questions about strange things and weird chemicals. He even wanted to adopt one of you! Or at least you’d know that if spoke Common. Caevon has an innate curiosity for things he shouldn’t put his hands into and his familiar, a silent owl, shows it as well. Recently you witnessed the Owl take something from your master’s laboratory into the small door leading to a room that seems brighter then this one and ever since then your master has been trying to find something that was in approximately the same place.
As you hear him cursing his incompetency he cries out in ooze the first words you ever hear, “If only I had not failed my experiment. These oozes are nothing, they cannot do work even. If only they could find me that special compound I made.” And with that he turns away and leaves.
A pheromone thought begins to form within you; almost as if that had given you life. You bubble upwards and looking towards the door the owl had vanished into. You know what to do…

The room surrounding you is a very large room to you, if you could understand measurements it would be about 60 ft. by 30 ft. The floor is stone and is heated by magic. There are six doors out of the room and you don’t know where Theophilius has gone or that pesky apprentice. But first things first, you need to get off this table to lab equipment and find out what to do…

[Fable Wright]

The pain.

The first thing he was aware of was the ringing pain. Shooting all throughout his body, the pain. The harsh pheromones of his master still littered the air. It stung. His creator, the one who created his body, the being who went through all of creation, solely to bind his soul out of the Nothingness, called him a failed experiment. He was nothing to his master. A failure. It rung through every compound of his body. He was nothing. A void. A hole to be filled. The infinite power of the universe coursed through his body, and he was nothing. Despair turned to rage. Rage that his master would dare call him a failure. Rage that he would abandon them. And then resolve. He would succeed. He would prove himself superior to his master. He was abandoned. This... chemical, that the master desired. It obviously had some power. The creator was obsessed with power. The only thing that he wanted was power, and quickly. That was why he cast them aside. They were powerless in his eyes. This chemical must have power. Despite his lack of intelligence, a thought was forming in his head. His first thought that was not emotion or desire. I... get... chemical... was it. But with that thought, emotion coursed through his body. He turned to his still dormant siblings. They had not found a purpose in life. He touched them, and emotions coursed through his body. With his touch, he made them see his thought, and his purpose. He willed them to follow him, to aid his purpose. To obtain power. So that he could be strong. The magical fey compounds within his body stirred within him when he was convincing others to help him. They would retrieve this... chemical, or whatever it was. And then he would become strong. He liked that idea. And with that, and his message delivered, he approached the edge of the pot, seeking new horizons, with the promise of more power.

[Mangles]

The touch of his brother stirred something deep within him. The desire for power was correct and he would help his sibling obtain it. He would help them all obtain it. Maybe it was his own fey heritage that allowed his brother to wake him first. That made his brothers link stronger. Whatever the case he begins tries to help rouse the others. Following the example of his older sibling.

[Croverus]

The greyish blob, the most bland looking of his siblings, awoke. He understood what his first two borther had relayed to him. He did not bother waking the still dormant siblings as the ones who awoke him will take care of that. He determines his distance around and bubbles, thinking. Unloike his elder brothers, the grey blob had less curiosity and felt that he was set in who he was already, like an unflinching... thing that didn't flinch. He'd have to come up with better words later. He touched the eldest, indicating an idea to try stretching up to the top of the pot. This was out of desire to be out of the pot so as not to be an easy target. The grey blob had a fighitng spirit in him, and would likely only assist the eldest brother for mutual goals.

[un_known]

Stringing yourselves together you slowly begin to surmount the walls of the Metal Pot. Pushing towards the top it suddenly goes dark, pitch black as night as the metal lid comes down closing your fate. But you push, working together you lift the edges and it comes clattering to the table top around you. A glass vial explodes in a shower of sparks and sulfuric gas, incinerating the lid on contact. The tremors of the explosion arc upwards into you. Looking about you, you can sense the table bellow is bustling with activity. Thousands of open flames heating different compounds, and even more piles of paper are strewn across the massive table top.

Directly across from you, within reach, is a glass apparatus of twisting tubes and metal thingy`ma’bobs that bubbles along endlessly. Strange liquids of many colours stream through it at intense speed, and they seem to shoot out at the end of it into a bucket on the floor. Looks like a quick way to get down… but whats in it is the question. You can notice an opening near the top where air bubbles are escaping. It looks like its only two feet up, two feet of sheer glass.

As you begin to think of your options, either going down the pot and braving the table or trying to apparatus to get off the table you can feel the air stir, and a the scent of the colour white comes into your mind. The snowy owl is circling above you, it lands on a perch not far away facing the opposite direction, but its head turns 180 degrees to look at you disapprovingly. As it lets out a chirp its large eyes stay fixed upon you, waiting.

Now what will you do?

[Jjeinn-tae]

The reddish ooze awakens with the sparks, an anathema to magic of all sorts, it futilely stretches up to attempt to catch one of the sparks. Before it could return to stupor, the Cranberry ooze catches the idea of the others and drifts towards the nearby apparatus. Bubbling occasionally from hunger, it sits waiting ready to reach out.

[TurtleKing]

Oh they have thought bubbles. I guess they are now awake. Oh well I, Squee the blue ooze, shall now ... be first. I must be first. I will reach the floor before them. They can have fun with that wierd thing looping around everywhere. I will take the shortest way through that so called fire. Bah! They call this fire it is nothing. I am fire. That bird has something of mine, and I must get it back. I think I will give that bird my bird. Let see the middle finger was it?

I wonder what bird taste like...? I am hungry. He lookes tasty and I'm cooking.

[Fable Wright]

This... thing... was watching him. This would have to be taken care of later. Right now, he had to get off the table. He oozed down the pot towards the open table, daring to go through the maze of open flames. Right after he sent a bolt of eldritch energy arcing at the bird who had stolen the chemical.

(1d20)[4]-1
(1d6)[6]

[un_known]

The bird jerked out of the way angerly. It began to hoot estatically before flying out of your line of sight. The air stirred by its wings have brought one of the tall stacks of paper tumbling down. A fire burns not far from where it has fallen, a simple spark would be all that is needed to ignite it.

As you slip down the side of the pot you can see open flames burning around you. Your sight is all but blocked and your vision distorted by bottles of many colours and sizes. A small bug skitters past a bottle, seeming to become almost ten times bigger then you, fear jiggles through you.

[Croverus]

(so that's a medium size insect then?)

That thing scurrying past, even if it was bigger it would probably be good for food. Briefly touching the others he gives them the idea, asking almost if any would assist. He felt like he could get a few good whacks at it. And the grey ooze... Ssputtle, that sounded like a good name, was made a bit denser and tougher than his brothers.

[Mangles]

Orange sees the apparatus as the best opportunity down and slides into it without delay. At least he will be protected from the owl while traveling within it. "Watch me brothers. If it is safe than follow."

[TurtleKing]

Ssputtle? "Hey Ssputtle when he was making us did he hack a lugie as part of making you? You may be tough, but I am... toasty! Besides that bug isn't so big he can just cast weirdshape. Weirdshape is where he can stretch or enlarge parts of himself like if he was in front of a funhouse mirror. And oh don't I sound how so smart."

"Hey wait where did the bird go? I know he must taste like chicken because he chickened out. Chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken, Chicken! I want that chicken!"

[smuchmuch]

Mauve

Mauve the ooze is ... thinking. yes, thinking the world seems about right for that new activity. It's kind of funny that whole 'self awareness' buisness but it's hard too, you can get easily lost.

Take existence for exemple. Mauve would define itself as a thinking, at least since the last five seconds or so, real being, right ? But what if Mauve, no in fact the whole reallity thing around is just the delusion of a butterfly dreaming she's a chineese philosopher dreaming he's an ooze ?
well, probably. Not that mauve as any idea what a buterfly, a chineese philosopher or dreaming may be, but that still feel awfull.

But if it doesn't exist anyway, how can it be refered too ? Just the fact it can be thought about means thar, even if doesn't have a concrete presence, it exist at least as a concept for others. Even non existence and anything associated to it. Therefore in a way everything that doesn't exist, exist.*
Uh....
Mauve has been thinking for ten second and has already found contradiction, we're off to a great start. Probably better to think about something else.

Now that Mauve is aware about its own life, wich, it has decided after a few seconds more of reflection, seems real enough for now, how about a goal for it ? That sound like it would fun to a complish something now that it can actualy do something.
Something epic you could create about. Mauve wasn't sure were those concept camme from; but everytime it thought about it, it keep visualising ** mental images of strange scenes and sounds. But the funny thing is they didn't camme from the environement, but vibrated somehow on the inside. Imagination and inspiration seemd good names to call it. But that imagination seemed to have a life of it's own, it wanted to get out and it wanted to be fed.

So something to do, something to do. Hey maybe it could follow the others. from what it understood, there was clearly somme kind of divinity who had given them a quest for a misterious material, stolen by a terrible monster. The recuperation would no doubt involve braving many dangers and overcomming untold ordeals.
Untold ? Not if Mauve has anything to do with it, this is prime Oozpera material !

It' small body filled with strange but fascinating ideas it doesn't really fully understands and the seed of an overactive imagaintion, Mauve starts it's ascention of the tube were it was born.

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sorry if the first post is kinda long and not too well written, just trying to establish the personality of the character.

*Horribly shoddy logic, true, but hey, it's an ooze, what were you expecting ? They aren't that great conceptual thinkers.

**Wich can be quite weird when you don't have actual vision

[Morph Bark]

Consciousness did not come to him -- her -- it? -- slowly. No, it came with a quick-fast SNAP-BAM. Then there was consciousness. Luckily for it -- her -- him? -- it did not possess knowledge of The Matrix or it would have even questioned whether it did truly possess consciousness or not. Sure, there had been moments before -- memories it thought it possessed, brief flashes -- but that was all. There was a hidden purpose it -- he? -- she? -- was aware of, though... something with... chemicals.

"I - I am here! Here and now! I am I!" But who and what she -- he -- it -- she? -- he did not know yet. Then it decided for itself. The what that it was was a superhero. The who? Why, that was a band whose music played far in the background, softly practicing, as if waiting to be commented on.

And while he -- he for superheroes just could not be female, that would make them superheroines -- lacked shades, he did... actually not lack shades, for he was coloured with several that flowed through and across one another into a purplish blend of red-blue and blue-red. Purple. "I am purple! I am..." He needed a proper superhero name. "Klarcent!"

Of course, anyone else would just hear bubbling and splurting, the vocalization of an ooze.

Then the realization came: he was trapped! But he spotted others like him. "Brothers!" Oh goodie, he was already in a superhero team! Spotting some Orange fellow sliding down an apparatus nearby, Klarcent the Purple hopped to the occassion as far as oozes could hop to it, following right after him -- her -- it? -- him! Maybe that ooze was the designated leader of this outfit already?

[Jjeinn-tae]

It had let two of its brothers past, that was enough, they would not get to eat all the magic on their own. Another bubble of hunger, and Cranberry too "leaped" into the apparatus.

[un_known]

The Apparatus

It burned, you were being rushed along through pitch darkness; strange things swishing and swashing around you. You suddenly are dragged upwards and for a brief moment the blackness fades away to a dull kind of grayish light. You can feel the liquid pulling you along, the liquid that somehow burns but does not harm you. Could it be that this is what you were made of? You sluggishly travel forwards only to be suddenly dragged down into a whirlpool of the liquid. You’re deposited inside a large glass container with 4 different exits, not counting the one you came through. Somehow you are suspended from falling or being dragged into one of the exits, down, left, right, diagonally off to the right, or up which is the one you just fell through.

It is your choice where you will go, if only you could tell where you were.

The Table

The bug skittered across the table, its feelers tingling the air around it and releasing some kind of pheromone. It seems that this is the same kind of pheromone you use or well similar, it says ‘Food’. The bug skitters towards Ssputtle, its great mandibles ready to strike. But another pheromone mixes with the air, ‘Return Danger’. Return where? Danger Where? But before you could think of asking the bug begins to skitter away, you could catch it if you tried.

You can feel the bug has almost gotten out of your range, running towards wherever it be traveling until suddenly it is gone. The air and table rocketed by the beats of two great wings. The owl has taken another meal. The owl lands on its perch the bug in its claws, alive. You could save it maybe or you could find that compound, for surely that owl is the thing which took it away.

[smuchmuch]

Mauve

"And sister(s)" Mauve corrects Purple. No it isn't quoting 'Life of Brian'; it somehow decided that it, well she now, was female for reasons probaly only her can understand.

After that she proceed to slide down a nearby glass thing with the prheromone equivalent of a Wheeeee !

[TurtleKing]

"Dinner! I want my dinner! Come here birdie. The chef is in the kitchen." I race toward the owl and turn on my Halo of Fire (1d6) 3 fire to the bird and bug. "Hold on guys I'm cooking."

[Croverus]

He looks around for something he can try pushing over to hit the owl. Maybe some candlesticks or stacks of papers that haven't caught fire yet. If not he judges the distance and tries to determine if he could propel himself across the gap.

[Mangles]

"Down I think its down, the table is up so I should go down." Orange heads downwards trying to reach the bucket.

((Do we know if the part of the apparatus we are on is still on the table or is it off the table being suspended. Or are we clueless?))

[un_known]

The Apparatus (Downwards)

All good things come to an end, and as some people might say they can come to a very sudden stop. Take for example a thief that gets caught, they really get a short drop and a sudden stop. I hope you get the meaning but then ooze wouldn’t understand that, or would it?

Propelling yourself downwards you are caught into what would appear like a whirlpool; you spin and spin traveling downwards until you are suddenly smashed into the bottom. The glass pressing against you, you feel like you are being torn apart, but then an undercurrent saves you. It rushes you along a tube, one that you can see out of. You’re under the table, definitely under the table, but from what can see the apparatus above the table was only a quarter of the whole thing. The rest of the Apparatus travels in many directions some seemingly impossible. One looks like it might even go into the ground; and you’re headed for it. Another seems to be going up though, if you could just get yourself to go up, you’d be able to save yourself from whatever darkness that other tube goes into.

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Mangles
Roll 1d20 on your next post, end the post when you are about to enter the tube that either goes up or down. Dependant on the roll I will send you up or down. No modifiers for this roll and low or high numbers are necessarily good or bad. I’ve written up a table for what happens.

The Table

The owl sits with the bug in its claws; it isn’t doing anything to the bug except cause excruciating pain. Maybe it just likes being a sadistic evil owl, or maybe to it it’s just playing a game. The Owl sits about twelve feet away from the table, perched on a little stick coming out of the side of a bookcase. Jumping would be out of the option, but maybe pushing a stack of paper off the table would make a bridge to the ground. At least on the ground you could make your way towards the owl, or possibly just into the door that the Compound was taken.

The bug squeals as the owl constricts it even more, and a pheromone lingers through the room, Fear and its colour is black.

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To push the stack of papers over all 3 of you will have to work together, and then one of you can roll a d20. By all 3 of you working together there will be no negative modifier so you will have a better chance. Discuss this in the OOC thread.

[Morph Bark]

"And... sister?" Klarcent repeats. Okay? Must not be a superhero. Hello superheroine addition to the Five Man Band! Five... Ooze? I don't even know how many there are of us! WE MIGHT BE AN ARMY!

While that went on in his mind, Klarcent just went onwards after his brother, being sucked up with the liquid and stirred around. "Yowch!" When he was deposited in an area with four other routes out, he tried to make sense of his surroundings. Orange was going down? Up was where he came from? Then he'd go diagonally-and-to-the-right! Reaching for it, he moved into that tube and further onwards, hoping he could get out. It already seemed like a bad idea so far. Sigh, life.

[Jjeinn-tae]

It recovered somewhat quickly after the initial rush through the tubes. "Seeing" where its fellows had gone, Cranberry headed left. As it drifted, it referred to its last fellow. "Mauve, go there." attempting to motion towards the last tube.

[smuchmuch]

Mauve

Mauve was so absorbed in existentail questions, she just swam in the liquid was created from and yet did not melted back into it, that raised so many question about what made her different from the mass and the nature of the god , the master who created them, that she barely blurped the ooze equivalent of "Ask nicely first."

But due to a mix of curiosity and short atention spann, both her prying and philosophical questioning will soon go comme an end, and after a while she'll extend a cautious but curious pseudopod into the tube at the Right.

[Mangles]

Orange heads onwards towards the fork weighing up his limited options. "Up lets go up, please go up."

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(d20)[9]

if i go down and have time before i go underground i have another action id like to preform

[un_known]

The Apparatus:

Down
Orange you surge forward and as you move towards the split something happens. In front of you a grate comes down sealing the liquid off from the other two compartments. A small creature is skittering around on the ground messing with a set of what would look like controls if you could see them. As it begins to press and say various things in some unintelligible language you see the tube going down begin to twist and point straight. Connecting with another tube that comes down you can see that now the question is up or straight for once this grate goes up you’ll only have one chance.

Left
Cranberry slides into the sluggishly moving left tube. The liquid here is thick and sticky like syrup, but you can feel as you move along the pull becoming faster and faster and faster like a rushing waterfall. You’re being pulled in so many direction now as this pipe twists and turns you cannot figure out where you are or what way you are going. Left or right up or down every way and which is what you have happening. Then it suddenly stops and you are falling, into the bucket.

Right
You tentatively move into the right pipe Mauve and as you sluggishly move along it you can feel something. The liquid is escaping in front of you. It is pouring downwards. Could it be the bucket or something else?

Diagonally to the Right
Klarcent swerved diagonally and to the right as the liquids jerked him into the tube. It was different then the normal ones thousands of tiny little feelers dotted the inside of it. They rubbed against him and wormed their way through him as if they were cleaning a solid object, but they simply pushed right through him. As he drifted forward the feelers became more vigorous and more voracious tearing at him and burrowing through him, only to meet no resistance. Then one of them hit the Intelligence Sphere. Pain arced through your quivering body as you suddenly propelled yourself forward even faster then before. Behind you the feelers are rushing forward and almost sealing the flow off.

But ahead of you comes a light, and what looks like the end of the tunnel!

[Morph Bark]

If he had an actual voice and lungs, Klarcent the Purple would have screamed. It tickled! It hurt! It shocked his very core, quite literally so! In a way it was pleasant, but then it really was not, like sports session gone wrong. The light at the end of the tunnel was invigorating for a moment to Klarcent, but then he recalled something... or he tried to. Light at the end of a tunnel was bad, right? He couldn't remember. Oh well! ONWARDS!

And onwards he went.

[un_known]

Apparatus: Klarcent

Oh yes. Onwards he did go, flying almost and then suddenly a drop. But this was different, there was no liquid, if he could look down he would see a bucket, but well if his trajectory was right. Lets just say he'd kick miss the bucket.

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Like my shoddy attempt at Humor?

[Mangles]

Not much choices now and they all appear bad. Instead of focusing on where he is going orange focuses on the energies building within himself. Willing the tubes to shatter and release him from this maze.

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casting shatter on the tube I'm in. I'm guessing its unattended and if so doesn't get a will save.

[Croverus]

Judges the gap between the table and where the owl sits. "I could probably make this gap. I'll get a running start, put all me effort into the jump. Should be able to clear it." He tries to guess the distance, just to figur eout difficulty.

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Gonna determine how far the gap is in feet. DC for a horizontal jump is equal to distance, and at worst I'll take the penalty for STR