ALDO

THEREFORE I AM

You are a curious creature. You do not have a brain. You do not have a heartbeat. You do not have nerves. You do not have systems to maintain water. You do not breath- that is, you do not breath how fish do, either. In a sense, you do not feel. You have never felt thoughts or worries, perhaps only a senseless need to survive.

You cannot see. You have light-sensitive organs, little spots. They do not form images but can detect light and let you determine up from down. You are small, unnoticeable, the size of a dime. You glow. You do not know how old you are. Typically, beings like you only live a few hours to several months. In thought, that is a rather unfortunate existence. To only exist for mere hours? Your entire existence is less than a day? What kind of life is that? Is that a life at all?
You are special, however. If you are exposed to environmental stress, physical assault, illness, age, you can revert to the polyp stage, a younger form of yourself. In a sense, you can cheat death. You have lived for a very long time. You are not sure how long.
This raises a new question.

Do you have emotions? Do you live? Do you have a name? Do you have a conscious? Are you just some poisonous thing floating and pulsing without direction or purpose? Can you think? You must be, right? You can ask questions. You can think. You are able to reason.
You don’t understand. What are you? How long have you been existing? You are something in a void of nothing. You are a single cell floating with your colony, in the dark ocean. You want to understand. You want to see. You want to hear. None of this comes to you. Only darkness. You have reverted too many times now. You cannot die. You are pained to an existence of floating with eyes shut, ears deafened, mouth clamped. You use your limbs to push, but not much more.

You stray away from the colony.
You are taken in the currents, your thin form swept up and up- your “eyes” can sense oncoming light. So much light. You’ve never experienced so much light. You cannot hear. It is dry, cold air, blistering sun. You are in pain, flattened, you are washed up on a beach.

This is how you die. There is no water. You cannot revert. You cannot function. You lay there, suffering. So strange. It seems you have the ability to feel pain. You are going to shrivel up and die, right here. No more existing. Maybe it would be better this way. After all, you’ve never really felt what life is. Just existing. Maybe this would be a peaceful send off for you.

Again, you are wrong.
The next minute is filled with a pain like no other. Perhaps, this is your body trying to revert. Your body grows, you sprout a tail, a snout- some brown substance you have never felt or seen before. You have a heartbeat. You have blood. You have a brain. You have ears. You are a giant- a fat giant. You have a pocket in your skin. You have SKIN. You have vocal chords.

This is form entirely different than what you are. It has the capacity to understand what life is.
It does not stay, and you start to scream. Your body is in absolute pain. You gain scales, you flop like a fish, you lose scales, you grow fur, paws- you change, over and over again, and you do not understand. Finally, you settle on a form. You are writhing, whining. You are letting out screams. You have teeth. You have four limbs, stripes, you have a large jaw, you’re the color of the ground.
You try to swim but only kick around sand. You roll onto your side and flail around, trying to swim, trying to push. You manage to roll onto your stomach and flail more, unaware that you can stand. You writhe and squirm, clawing your body back towards the water, trying to push yourself back into the ocean. You want the water, you need the water. It is your only home and your safety. Where was the colony? You need the colony! You push until you are halfway in, and finally dunk your head under, saltwater filling your large mouth and burning your eyes. You pull your head out, beginning to choke and reflexively standing. You stumble, tripping over your own limbs and landing on your shoulder, heaving and spitting. Why had the ocean rejected you? You didn't do anything! You wanted to go back!

You let out a thick cry, eyes turning to the ocean, and whimpering.

// this one will be written in second person for style, all subsequent posts will written in 3rd person. TLR Jellyfish shpaeshifts into Tasmainian Tiger to save its live, is now lying on the shore and is very confused.

ALDO

THEREFORE I AM

The creature's head turned as the first figure approached. Unable to walk, they stumbled and tripped over their own limbs, and trying to squirm and push away. This was not the comforting water, whatsoever. They could not get away! They whined and whimpered, trying to squirm away and shaking his head.

They couldn't feel or express much more- their mind was in a state of panic, in need to escape from this predator. He wanted to swim away but didn't know how. They stared her up down, noticing her legs and how she was up. He had those too. Could he? He saw the other creature coming towards him, and start pushing on him. They screamed and yelped- they didn't want to be touched! The thylacine gripped their paws into the sand, then stood up on shaky legs, as if they had never walked before.

They took tentative steps back, whining and whimpering, looking towards the sea then back at them. The water was no longer safe, then what was? They were scared and gripping with feeling emotions for the first time- they yelped. They wanted to get away and to get back in the water, but they were stuck frozen, standing and shaking.

Being rather absent as soon as he arrived didn't help the lion. Velarin knew none of these people, but the scent clinging to two of them over the third told him as soon as he arrived who to stand near. The large, almost oversized lion, white pelt blaring, stood next to the other two with his hair on end. When he was born, he thought to himself, he had felt that same way. Confused, lost, and hungry- hungry to return to his mothers womb.

His mismatched eyes scanned the writhing and afraid lion. Slowly, carefully, Velarin's ears perked as he laid down. He pressed his ears back, before laying his head down. Velarin's mismatched gaze remained on the being that was trying to flee, but he stayed silent and unmoving. He glanced at the others, then back towards the tiger with a small grunt.

"SPEECH"

idyllfields

stars did fall

idyll was sympathetic to the confusion the creature faced, but could not understand it. they had not seen the transformations he had gone through, nor were they present to see how they had even ended up it. though it was not uncommon for poor unfortunate souls to wash up on their beaches half-alive, it was concerning still. idyll swallowed hard, their front paw lifting attentively to avoid the mucky parts of the sand. they were close enough to the water where they were... but their oath as a sage still called for them to be here.

"can someone help him to me? i... i would but..." their fear was no secret throughout the typhoon, but these were barely recognizable faces. perhaps some newcomers had slipped past them over the previous few days. "i can check his vitals and perhaps communicate. do you have a name?" they called their last inquiry louder, trying to get his attention.

ALDO

THEREFORE I AM

These were predators. He didn't know what they were, but they were dangerous to them and he didn't like it. How could they get away? They felt the feline come up behind them, and start urging the thylacine forward. They let out a few barks as the stumbled forward and towards the coyete. They whined and shook their head as they were being corraled away from the ocean, and looked at it as if the thylacine were being pulled away from their home.

Their words were all gibberish to them, nor could the thylacine understand them. If they were in a calmer state, perhaps they could deduce what they were trying to say to them. The thylacine had never come into contact with any amount of language, so speak to others was an unknown concept to him.

Finally pushed towards the coyote, they stood still, a final long whine leaving their throat as their eyes glanced between the coyote and the ocean.