An expansion spanning two coordinate positions.

Directly connected to: Spawnpoint
Directly connected to: Unnamed Plant Fiber Disc

The composition is mostly Water (98% Pure), with dozens of lumpy or spiral formations at the 'map north' end. These formations are made out of ??? and ???.

The peace in the north of this landmass is broken, as a Telepath PLAYER dives down in search of a better material with which to use as a weapon!

The depth of this landmass is about twelve feet, and the grayish formations that reek of salt only to the trained nose are at the bottom of that depth!

Thus, Dmitri holds his breath and becomes the first one to break the water, as he sinks down to the mysterious objects!

As he gets closer, he realizes that they are made of some kind of stone and some kind of mineral, likely salt!

They are quite tranquil, though maybe he is not in the mood to appreciate it.

Regardless, as he gets within a couple feet, he stops as he notices something moving among the mass of pseudo-stalagmites!

Tranquility is something that is amazingly rare here, so Dmitri took a brief moment to appreciate it. Then he noticed the motion. So much for tranquility.

Or maybe not. This is the first "monster" that wasn't first visited by the rage machine, as far as he recalled. And since there was no obvious hostile feeling here, Dmitri decided a different approach might be warranted.

Mustering every feeling of tranquility he could muster in this insane place he found himself in, Dmitri attempts to initiate a telepathic bond with the nearest of the moving objects.

As he reaches out to the unseen creature, with a small tether of psychic energy, Dmitri feels a strangely surprised response... before some hesitation... and then, finally-

He's in. A connection was made. Dmitri knows, because the sensation of having a Telepathic Bond open is unique. It feels a lot like the kind of 'focus' one may have when keeping something in the back of their mind... it's basically an unintrusive and non-overwhelming version of constantly being reminded that you have a chore to do later, or something like that.

That's when it's quiet, however, the bond he makes is not quiet for long as...

Ch-chn?

The sound doesn't mean anything to Dmitri. Is it a language, or a simple expression of curiosity?

As he tries to comprehend what is being said, he notices that the XP in his skill is soaring RAPIDLY!




In that time, the creature he is sort-of-communicating with crawls out from behind one of these mineral formations and reveals itself to be a small, salmon-colored critter, with a hard shell, no visible facial features nor antennae, and six legs as it crawls around the bend of one of these rocks, it's back facing sideways and away, as it grips the stone.

Dmitri has been underwater for about 16 seconds, now. He does not know how long his breath will last, but his lungs are not burning yet so it's not dangerous.

For the first time in a long time, Dmitri is actually happy that something worked out close to what he was expecting. The creature responded, but either it isn't humanoid or it didn't speak a language that the comprehension skill could act on. Regardless, he had such a language, and he thought in that language to the creature.

"I am Dmitri, a human, who or what are you?"

The create jolts at Dmitri's words, and retreats behind the small stone...

The thin tether he has managed to build trembles and nearly snaps at the sudden reaction of the creature to hearing this language in whatever mind it has...

Things are quiet for a moment after Dmitri speaks... well, except for the notifications which are still appearing quickly, despite slowly decreasing in quantity and quality...




By that point, Dmitri has held his breath for half a minute, and just now is he beginning to feel it. It's not painful yet, nor urgent, but his body is beginning to get the sense that he hasn't breathed in a while.

As he realizes this, another communication appears, though it is still not clear whether it even is a language, or just some sort of primitive 'talk'

'Cha-ak nhaan'

Maybe because the Telepathic Bond skill has leveled up, or because of Dmitri's desire to communicate with this entity, but very very slowly, he is beginning to pick up a hint of meaning from these sounds in his head...

All he gets from the aforementioned mental utterance is... some sort of statement? He cannot really explain WHY he knows that, but he does get the idea that it is something like that... The tether connecting the two seems a bit thicker and tauter

It's almost funny, because Dmitri does not know if either him or the entity are being successful in communication, and in fact he does not even know if the other party is attempting to do so...

Dmitri realizes that this creature may not be able to speak a language, but it might still be able to understand. At the very least, it hasn't attacked, so it's worth it to keep trying, but with some non-verbal action thrown in.

Dmitri flips in the water to catch a breath, doing his best to keep contact with the creature. As he does, he thinks, "Do this if you want me to leave you alone." Then he does a 360-degree turn to the right, facing the creature again, thinking, "Do this if you want me to stay."

Dmitri is submerged, so he will have to swim up a bit to get a breath, but he can fairly easily do a flip and a spin with this much room.

The waves from his motion, do sadly batter the little guy a bit and a pathetic sound rings through his mind as he finishes his motion...

'Kyyeeeehk!'

It's very clearly a sound of distress

Afterwards, the link (which is still tethered, because physical motion does not seem to disrupt the strange ethereal purplish-pinkish thread) is silent, but Dmitri gets a strange static-y sense as the creature is... thinking?

After another quarter-minute, a response comes through from the creature.

'Ee! Ka ka ka'

Dmitri barely notices some motion from behind the rock, but is not able to make out what motion was just done...?

As for what the noises could mean... Dmitri isn't sure, but the thing seems to be... relaxed? Is it maybe having fun? It's not really clear what it is, but it's some sort of light feeling, most likely.

During this time, there have been some more XP rewards.




Lastly, at this point Dmitri has gone nearly a minute without air, and it is starting to hurt in his lungs.

OOC: I forgot to mention this, but the mineral formations connect at the bottom into a sort of fairly wide sand-bed, of some kind

Dmitri begins to notice the feeling of pain in his lungs and mimics thinking the distress signal that came from the creature. He then slowly pops his head above water, trying not to disturb the visible tether, floating in the water.

With a chance to breathe, Dmitri then guesses the "ka ka ka" is a gesture of understanding and mimicks it in his thought. "Ka ka ka. Hand hand hand" he says, waving his hand below the water.

Dmitri's tether does not snap, but it does waver as he moves a distance away... he gets a sense of... maybe surprise? nervousness? sadness? ... from the small, passive critter

Regardless, he gets a breath to refill his lungs.

Then, he mentally speaks his chosen phrase, which is half mimicry, and half... well, the word hand repeated thrice. Dmitri probably intended to explain that his word for this appendage of his was 'hand', but the creature maybe takes it differently as the response he gets is:

'Ka ka ka! Haka haka haka? Ee!'

With this, Dmitri is becoming more sure this is not entirely a language, but rather just an expressive series of noises... though, they hold some meaning despite being undeveloped.

This time, the creature seems to go between three emotions, though they move to quickly to tell exactly what they are... The second is at least some sort of 'question', or maybe just 'confusion'... the mental faculties of this creature are not entirely clear, but Dmitri can reason it does have at least something going on in there.

'Ka ka ka' does not seem to be a gesture of understanding, but it also doesn't seem in a radically different field of thought or anything...

The creature, visible from behind the rock to Dmitri at this elevation, crawls to the top before lightly leaping off and... half-swimming, half-wriggling it's way upwards, straight in a direction towards Dmitri's hand.

Dmitri moves his hands to catch the creature. If it can't communicate through the link, he thinks, it might be able when in direct contact.

So far, there weren't any hostile readings coming from anything here, and he didn't want to do anything to initiate them. If it lets him, Dmitri will try petting the creature once it arrives, preparing a mental blast in reserve if this thing turns out to be hostile.

As Dmitri grabs at the creature, it immediately begins to shake and flail, trying to back out of his grasp!

Through the tether, he hears:

'NAAK! K'knaknak kHaa!'

The thing's behavior shows it is surprised, and maybe even scared.

Meanwhile, the mental 'talk' very slightly indicates a sense of anger... well, not quite... it's a bit more detailed than that, but hard to tell... It's something like... indignation? Maybe not... it doesn't really have any undertone of pride in it...

In that moment, Dmitri realizes! The creature is feeling 'betrayal' at Dmitri's actions!

Perhaps suddenly grabbing a tiny creature is stressful, and could be interpreted as attacking...

Depending on if Dmitri decides to keep hold on the creature, he may get some pretty nasty bloody scratch marks on his hand. If he lets it go without a struggle, it will simply turn it's back and dart away.

Dmitri sets the creature down gently, offering soothing thoughts as he does so. "Sorry, buddy. I misunderstood what you were trying for. Yes, that's my hand. What do you call yours?"

After being sent the words, the creature seems to stop running away, before, slowly, VERY slowly, turning around to once more face Dmitri...

Eventually, it begins to inch closer to the telepath, still clearly upset, and probably a little distrustful...

Then... after, about thirty seconds of this (Dmitri does not need to hold his breath because he has not left the top of the water's surface)...

It cocks it's head... before...

'Chneaah' it gives off a strange sound, which sounds less like a proper noun as Dmitri may have expected, and rather something like shaking your head, saying 'no' or any other form of denial...

After a moment, but before Dmitri can formulate a response...

The creature asks a question of it's own. Which is quite surprising, possibly.

Though, what exactly it's asking... not clear, with just the sounds of:

'CheHennhe kak kak? Chhchhn...ChChnn...'

The latter part is mumbled, as if half spoken to itself...

Really, Dmitri has no clue, but he does notice a response to all this from the system!

Dmitri can only guess at what this creature is trying to...ask?! He uses a hand underwater to point at the creature and think "Chneeah kak kak." Then he turns the finger to himself and thinks, "Dmitri kak kak. What are you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 02:25, Sat 26 Feb 2022.

Dmitri thinks himself saying 'chneeah kak kak' to the creature... unfortunately, it's hard to imagine himself saying those sounds, so they only come out as a somewhat close approximation...

Perhaps for that reason, or because those are not actual 'words' but just 'chatter', or because maybe they are words but the telepath cannot understand what they mean yet... but, the bug simply cocks it's head and mostly ignores it, with no response/remark...

It would be funny if he looked like he was speaking gibberish right about now.

Then, 'Dmitri kak kak' is basically also not understood by the creature at first, but then it sends the phrase:

'You: Dmitri.'

Dmitri realizes right away from this that the creature's intent was probably translated, as the noises it actually verbally made were 'CheeuhCh'

Then the creature responds to the last message, with the same sense of 'no' as before... this time, however, the skill translates a little better (having learned to do so, maybe?):

"not...?"

It's definitely a poor translation, as the creature clearly isn't denying that it 'is'... so certainly the finer details were lost, what with the low level of the skill and the huge disparity in communication methods...

Dmitrl's thoughts can barely contain his excitement when the creature "thought" something understandable (or at least translatable). So the thoughts continue: "Yes, I am Dmitri. You are who?" Dmitri knew that it would probably get chopped in translation, but he hoped enough of it would get through to continue the conversation.

The thought of having creatures here that aren't hell-bent on killing us, plus the fact that at least one bit of rudimentary information made it through the communication link made Dmitri as happy as he had been since being here. There were still a few Dissenter vibes, but at least {SYSTEM} hasn't proven to be completely arbitrary, so there was still hope of a resolution.

Dmitri's excitement does not really parse through the 'telepathy bond' , but the creature seems able to instinctively pick up on the emotion, or at least sort of...

Regardless, a response comes through - much quicker this time!

'I am me'

It's not giving it's name... probably because, Dmitri realizes, it doesn't have one... in fact, it probably doesn't have "words" for things in general...

still, something is really profound about the response... After a moment of contemplation, the Dissenter realizes it's because this creature has clearly explained it has a 'self', even if it's sapience and understanding of language is not at the level of a human being...

Beyond the intellectual joy of this... it's also quite emotionally fulfilling, as well as a little scary... What if they had to fight these things? Would he be able to do it, after knowing they were capable of thought and emotion?

His entire body feels a little shaky, in a way that is both thrilling and terrifying!

Dmitri does some rapid calculations outside the link: No sense of names, but has objective pronouns. Knows first and second person, no current evidence of third person knowledge. That should be the next avenue of exploration.

There is currently no need to fight these things, so there is no reason to worry about it yet. Only one has shown any inclination to talk, so more information needed on that. Can cover both with one question.

"Yes, you are you. Do you have friends?"

A very vague sense of being pleased comes from the creature before it continues. It probably liked being affirmed in some way.

The bug thinks on Dmitri's question for a bit...

I have no {other}s!

It seems emphatic about that.

Then... a second part to the reply accompanied with a wavering of the tether:

I know {other}s

It seems contradictory to Dmitri at first, but then his gigabrain realizes the bug probably didn't get the fully translated version of the question at first. Dmitri had asked if he 'had' friends, but since that could literally be translated as 'being in the possession of', the second reply was probably the more accurate version of what Dmitri intended, which may have been why the skill's tether warbled as it struggled to transfer the meaning behind the words.

Dmitri double checks and finds his calculations seem stable enough... but he also reminds himself that this creature is likely not speaking or hearing 'words', and the meaning is probably being translated in a way different to how Dmitri is being delivered his...

Perhaps, the creature is just getting vague senses of curiosity towards certain things, or maybe the sounds it makes is a sort of proto-language that assists with meaning and the tether is delivering a Dmitrified version of that to them.

In that moment...

'zssszzzssueeugghkk kk....'

'{tired}'

The creature sways unstably as if drunk... Dmitri checks reflexively, and the tether seems to be pulled more taught... It's purplish color is also fading away.

OOC: One thing I should be clear about is that the curly brackets do not make a sound, obviously. The way you can tell they are there is by a sort of mechanical presentation of those words. Sort of like how you would expect... Oh i dont know... a {system} to sound? lol.

Basically, it sort of sounds like a robot voice translating something.

By the way, until this point all of the audio you have been hearing in your mind from this guy comes in a strange voice which is both not human, and also a little glitchy, as if pieced together...

This makes sense if Dmitri thinks about it, since the creature clearly doesn't have a tongue or lips, so it probably doesn't 'monologue' with them

Overall, while Dmitri feels this is going well and progress is being made in mutual understanding, he does not actually know much about the intelligence of this species, or it's perspective.

Also, he is aware (though you can determine how much he cares about this) that an unclear portion of the communications from this creature are being modified by the skill, so that they can be understood

Dmitri realizes this animal is likely to attack if he continues much further, so a proper send-off is in order. "Bye. Dmitri will come back later when you are not tired." With that, he ends the link and returns to the group.

OOC: Once he gets there, I'm all in favor of the time skip

There is no argument, and when the link ends the creature seems to reorient itself a little before swimming the opposite way of Dmitri.

Once he emerges on the surface, he joins with the rest of the group, who have just got out of combat. He wasn't able to help them with the bugs, but he is able to share the successes he did have with them.