[Do you accept (system beta 0.28)]
[Yes] [No]
"We never came to a conclusion, did we? My thought on this is to accept. Admittedly, all my information on this is based on fiction, however, I must point out that it usually worked out well for them."
'Seems risky' 'Fiction?' 'Must it keep popping up like that?' 'You mean stories? You're basing your decisions on stories!' 'Most tales are based on facts!'
'Yeah, and most 'tales' are exaggerated and warped beyond recognition. Example, every Greek God you've ever heard of!' 'I say go for it, we already died once... well, a number of times, what's there to lose?' 'There are many things to lose, but I must say how can it hurt us?' 'What do you mean how? This must be some kind of witchcraft, its meer existence is a danger to us!'
And so, after the green little screen appeared, the skeleton's multitude of voices bickered for nearly 20 minutes.
Eventually, they decided to vote.
_______________________________
"Alright, after recounting four times because some people were uncooperative, we have come to a consensus. Using your votes, and my bias as a multiplier, it is concluded that we will accept!"
'What' 'RIGGED' 'Horse shite!' 'You are all fools!' 'Damned democracy-'
Finally, the skeleton used one of its four operating fingers to press yes. With this, the screen disappeared.
Nothing happened.
'That was a waste of t-'
[Begining manual assimilation]
[Estimated time until completion: 74:35:58]
'So, now what' 'Didn't it already do that, I could have sworn it said something like that when we woke up?' 'Wait it was already there with us? Why didn't you say anything?' 'I thought you already knew?' 'Hey, we should get back to the magic stuff!' 'Yes, that would be wise' 'Hey, look the sun is setting!'
With that, the skeleton turned towards the water painting-esque sunset.
Despite the sky's moderate beauty, it seemed the skeleton held little interest, quickly returning its attention to the recently mutilated prey.
Besides it couldn't see much of it from inside a forest.
Bending down it picked up one of the smallest bones it could find, deeming it good experimentation material.
"Hmm, {GROW}!"
With the small village's worth of commands, the bone grew expanded length wise. Appearing to create more bones and joints.
The energy in the air seemed drawn in, as if fueling the growth.
However, it wasn't the only thing that grew.
The flowers, which were just beginning to wilt, livened up, twisting around the skeleton's hand and moving up its arm.
Unfortunately, that was their limit. The bone went no further than making a paw, and the flowers only grew up to around the skeleton's elbow. The rest were unaffected.
'Whao' 'Wicked!' 'Lord have mercy' 'All that from one command. Truly, spectacular!' 'It's so cold'
The bone paw was peculiar. Unlike a normal skeleton, it remained intact, despite having no cartilage, tendons, muscles, or anything of the sort. It was rigid, yet moved like a normal paw.
The flowers, on the other hand, looked healthy. During the growing spree, they connected, creating their own little network. Unfortunately, their new system of stalks was pointless, as without reaching the ground they can't gather nutrients.
Picking up another small bone the cacophony spoke: {BREAK} and so it shattered.
Therefore it picked up another bone:{ENLARGE} and so it enlarged. This trend continued for multiple hours
--------------------------------------------
~hmm hmmMMm mm mm m~
In the woods, rays of light just recently broke into the forest floor.
Within a small clearing, there were strange skeletal things, on the ground, tree trunks, branches, and even some hanging from seemingly nowhere. None larger than a foot.
Most were simply warped, or half-phased into trees. While others were unnaturally grown. Like some kind of animal with a birth defect.
In the middle of this clearing was a skeleton.
It was lightly clean, looking more white than dirty. Housing, four full limbs each intertwined with flowers, some of their stalks even had buds ready to bloom. Unfortunately, the skeleton still had all its cracks, except for its left arm.
The left arm, however, didn't have a hand.
From the elbow down it curved into a blade slightly longer than its remaining hand.
In the skeleton's functioning hand was a skull- the last untouched material.
"Hmm... how about {SCREAM}"
Suddenly, the skull lowered its jaw, releasing a howl sent by the devil itself.
It was so loud the ground quaked and the trees shook as if trying to flee.
Animals ran from places unknown and the sky darkened as if tainted.
The skull shook and vibrated until eventually, it exploded. Shrapnel piercing all in sight.
...
Then silence. The only thing that could be heard was the occasional plop of a bone shard landing in leaves after the cranial pop.
...
'Well... let's not do that again.' 'What do you mean? That was awesome!' 'No, that was horrifying!' 'I think we just summoned a devil' 'time?'
[62:04:23]
"Around twelve hours? That's pretty good progress for that amount of time. We learned how to add things to the body and how to mold material. It's just unfortunate that we can't figure out how to make joints, otherwise we would have two working hands. We should stop experimenting until we find new material. In the meantime let's use the wasted excess and fix these cracks."
'Why stop?' 'We're out of material.' 'We wouldn't be out of material if YOU FUCKs didn't let them get away with the meat!'
'It's not like we could stop them, that squirr-'NOT A SQUIRREL'... those things are way faster than us. By the time we would reach the meat they'd already be gone!' 'That's no excuse'
The decision made, the skeleton proceeded to pick up some of the creations off the ground and...
~hmm mm mMm mmmm~
A humming spread through the forest.
Hundreds of voices sang their own hymns creating a discordant harmony.
As the sound permeated through every nook and cranny around, the skeleton with surprising ease began molding the bone creation.
Taking small chunks and applying them to the cracks, fidgeting with it until the spot looked as good as new.
--------------------
"Done!"
'Time'
[57:48:12]
"Man, making sure it's nice and smooth takes a lot of time. Not to mention when you mess up and bend something that wasn't supposed to be fixed or just finished fixing."
'If you just let me do it it would have been done in ten.' 'Perhaps if you didn't say you enjoy killing thing we would have let you.'
Now the skeleton was relatively clean and crack-free. All fingers and toes were present, though do to a lack of joints they were merely decoration.
Flowers running in and out of the skeleton as if growing from it.
Then the head, sporting a full set of sharp metal teeth and empty eye sockets bearing nothing but a couple of flower roots.
"That didn't take as much as I thought it would, there's still a couple of the 'sculptures' on the ground and we haven't even made it to the ones on the trees. So, what do you suppose we should do now?"
'Hunt!' 'Fish!' 'Sleep?' 'Find a town.' 'Fight!' 'Test magic' 'WHY WON'T IT STOP!' 'Rest'
"That's two hunts, a fish, and a test magic which we can do while hunting. So let's explore in search of prey. If we're lucky we may even find that town the men were from!"
The skeleton then began to walk, leaving its open-air laboratory.
It weaved through the trees, using its blade to mark them on its way. It observed its surroundings, taking note of the vegetation while plucking flowers or herbs.
Once the skeleton's hand was full it would sing itself a hymn connecting its harvest to the vine-y network.
__________________
'40 paces Northeast.'
It found prey.
The skeleton slowly made its way towards where multiple sets of footsteps were heard.
Soon it found its way past a bush and laid its eyes on the prey. It was a chicken... Centaur? It was half chicken, half horse, with six legs.
Three feet tall, and covered in feathers. Even bearing talons on its many legs.
'The hell is that' 'That looks a lot stronger than the squirrel!' 'IT BURNS' 'We can take it.' 'WE NEED TO RUN!' 'Taro claryatcha' 'We're stronger, we've got this' 'right' 'Aye!' 'Yes, let us slaughter!'
"Then we shall hunt!"
The skeleton took a fighting position. After feeling comfortable it stopped all movement.
Once sufficiently still, it called out softly in its gallery of voices.
{COME}
The command resounded, catching the attention of the creature.
Slowly it turned around and began walking towards the skeleton.
Its stride was confident as if a king in this small forest. During it's strut it even flapped its useless wings.
Soon it was in front of the skeleton, unafraid.
Taking the chance, the skeleton struck. Its blade flew forward, aimed at the neck.
And it hit piercing through, pinning it to the ground.
Unfortunately, it would still take a minute to die. To avoid allowing it to struggle and break a few newly restored bones, the skeleton grabbed its head and began humming.
~hmm mm mmMMm mm~
Then as if wet clay, the skeleton pushed a finger through its skull. After having its brain mushed it, ceased all movement...
'PREY SLAUGHTERED!'
'Hell yeah!' 'That was easier than I thought it would be.'
The skeleton withdrew its bloodied blade: {CLEANSE}.
The blood, and even some accumulated dirt, began to fall off the flower-logged skeleton.
Now clean the skeleton grabbed the creature's neck and dragged it back following the marked trees.
~hmm mmmm mm m mMm~
___________________________
'Time'
[52:27:33]
"Now then let's get to work."