He had been so isolated recently.

He had no excuse for it, of course, no excuse for not popping up when he probably should have, other than "research." That was as half baked as a reason for seemingly not existing could be, even if he was hiding out in his den, a decently sized room dug into the ground hidden by a silk entrance as if he were a trapdoor spider. What sort of research was he up to in his den? Mostly just studying the genetics of all the non-sapient lifeforms that inhabited this place. He couldn't get an alligator killed, but he did enough with just the fish and a few snakes. The main goal of this whole expedition was to just get a bearing for how dangerous it was to eat these creatures' essences, as that was his main form of metabolism - or it was his main form of gaining energy, when he had mutated his body properly, but now he would just settle with eating flesh like any other spider. Maybe he'd try out vampirism? Always seemed like fun when other people did it.

He probably shouldn't get distracted. Right now he had to focus on figuring out what mutation he needed right now that he could work towards. The obvious answer would be the modified diet, but that was something he could do later. Right now, he was honestly just hungering for some colored eyes, some eyes that didn't stay just a static green but reflected what he felt. They didn't help much with communicating his emotions, having usually relied on using emotional manipulation to communicate that while not controlling how they felt at the same time - not having facial features was a whole mess, honestly, but it was worth it for all the things the arachnid form granted him. Regardless, these eyes would help him feel more comfortable - to have the sense of change in them would make him feel more at home.

The process was easy enough. As the spider had already inspected his own essence in the past and figured out what exactly made his eyes chromatic, all he had to do now was find some extra bits of essence and modify his own, with some surgery and metamorphosis.

He still had no excuse for his absence, really, as the adaptation only took a few hours (between six hours to around a day, depending on the severity) of rest in a suitable environment, which he already had. Abathur just hoped his absence wouldn't have been too noticed, as he crept out of his little room under the ground and began to take a stroll, eyes noticeably larger and whiter. It meant calm, but he would be surprised if anybody knew that.

Step two of this was figuring out what emotion corresponded with what color, but he'd get to that when he had a mirror.

//honestly this is kind of just a post to get me back into the swing of writing with abby as well as get me figuring out some rules for how his genetic modification works and that he can do that. apologies for quality and it being kind of short, i'm low on energy right now
tl;dr: abathur gave himself some neat eyes that reflect how he feels

tags - "speech"

His first instinct as he heard a cat hopping down a tree to get next to him was to crawl backwards and raise his front limbs in a defensive motion - it was an odd motion but clearly one designed to threaten, even if he wasn't exactly possessing of getting mauled to death. You could tell it was instinctual,
since as soon as he realized it was Aya, his limbs snapped right back down, looking at her with eyes now tinged a slight red - he was annoyed. "Stealth before introducing self to animals maintaining instincts potentially results in injury," he said, a very roundabout way of calling her an idiot for getting the drop on him (semi-literally). The red faded from his eyes as he shifted towards her slightly, so as to not maintain an animosity via spacing. "Greetings. Yes, have been studying wildlife, figuring out genetic modification. Apologies for reclusiveness." Hopefully that would do in terms of excuses, because he really didn't have any other ones. Nor did he have any explanation for what exactly had changed about his eyes, instead opting for the "don't talk about it since it doesn't really matter" method.

And here was possibly the oddest person in Tanglewood - an asshole usually, but as soon as he got near Abathur, he turned into a quivering child, unable to walk properly from how much he was shaking in his boots. "Greetings, subject Malphas," the spider began with, turning three seemingly amused eyes towards the red eyed arachnophobe, "Have no opinion on weather. As long as not too cold for existence as ectotherm, don't care." He supposed it was a nice day, based on the connotation of the word "nice day," but he wasn't one for pleasantries like that. They didn't really matter in conversation, just a way to keep people talking so there was no time for the fear to set in. Ah, but he did have to apologize for his disappearance for more than just people wondering where he was -
he did kind of skip out on his nursing duties, too. "Apologies - was busy. Admit medical work, more important to clan than scientific understanding. Will be more active now."

tags - "speech"

Ohh, if he had hairs able to bristle they certainly would be at this moment. Anima reacting to him in a fearful way would be fine, he could handle that. Anima overreacting to him in a way that brought a crowd over would be even better, something he could think about when he was having a bad day to cheer himself up a bit. But Anima made the very grave mistake of directing her reaction towards his medical skills, a choice that drew nothing but contempt from the arachnid, contempt that would make him likely to ensure her wish came true. His eyes turned red, fading from the white which seemed to be natural, darkening into a bloody color that would likely indicate hatred in any sense, but even with such a color in his eyes his voice as he spoked seemed calm and level. "Do not require apology from idiot subject," he said, the insult stated so matter-of-factly that you could tell he meant it, "will make sure subject remains injured, as requested." It wasn't a threat, and he didn't try to make it come off as a threat, but just a guarantee, one that made it clear he was upset enough by her reaction to warrant a promise to himself. With any luck his currently vehement hatred would fade in time for him to be able to come to an agreement with her or something, but for now, his mind was set on ignoring her when she needed help.

It was a cold thing to think, but how else would he feel fulfilled as a person than imagining a scenario where he could through someone's words back in their face? Luckily he had an ally here, someone who wasn't going to step on him accidentally and end up killing the small spider, someone not shaken down to their core by a hairy eight legged being just existing. He thought he had gotten over such reactions to people vomiting out words in panic, but apparently medicine was a soft spot for him, one he would have to work on. "Subject Aya's assistance unnecessary -
can manage arachnophobes on own," he grumbled to her in the same tone, though noteably without the subtext of withheld medical care, flitting half his optics over to watch her with eyes that had only faded in color slightly.

It had been a while since something got to him, and what an interesting feeling it was. Certainly wasn't a good one, in any case.

tags - "speech"