Fanwork#600 words
Wings of Horn and Silk (posted in full since it was only just over 500 words anyway)
Formflow, as Ruby had decided to call it, had been all that they had hoped it would be, though the burning hunger which initializing the formflow thread had provoked was more painful than they imagined. Fortunately, with formflow optimizing their body's resource consumption, they were able to find enough food to take the edge off and continue training without spending too much time or attracting any attention.
Developing dreamsilk spinnerets had been much less painful, though they were less immediately useful as well. The dreamsilk of this world was vibrant green, strong, flexible, and abundant, which carried ontological implications which Ruby had already mostly figured from the initial Outside observation combined with their experiences inside. Still, they're at least able to fashion some clothing that won't get ripped to tatters whenever they exert their strength, which they've frankly missed. They weren't a tailor and didn't see the point in researching the skill right now, so a simple chiton would do.
Silkflow, however, immediately allowed for them to take on shapes that they couldn't have hoped to fuel under the malignancy of the Flagrant Affliction without it. By creating a scaffold of keratin and stringing it with dreamsilk, they created essentially a puppet body, which was of course massively weaker and slower than a more robust form but also vastly more efficient, which considering the sheer speed of transformation which formflow allowed, was a trade Ruby was happy to make. It felt wasteful to simply discard the dreamsilk when it was no longer needed, but it would dissolve back into the liminal substance of the world eventually and attempting to digest it themself would be a waste of time and resources.
Regardless, flying through the sky of this strange world on wings of horn and silk was a strange experience. Ruby could recall flying on wings before, after he had first graduated from the Edifice. He had wandered the waking world for a long while, before a fateful encounter with one of the founding members of the Collaboration set him down the path to eventually becoming Ruby. He had flown then, often, it was easily his favorite mode of travel. Flying now was...utterly different, if Ruby was honest, but somehow still contained the echoes of the past. Their wings now only barely qualified as alive, but the dreaming sensors which lined their informatic shadow meant that they were as sensitive an organ as his had ever been.
Ruby's reminiscing was cut short when a flying creature tore through their flight-puppet. It was simple to form another one, smaller and more robustly fleshed to allow for faster maneuvering, and while they adjusted their course they briefly scanned the attacker in the dream. Some sort of snake-bat-thing, Ruby would almost be tempted to call it a dragon if it possessed any real power, but even a casual inspection made it clear that it was merely a quick and territorial creature which knew not who it struck at, so a lesser name was called for. Maybe a wyvern.
Choose an approach.
<> Fly. It would be charitable to say that Ruby is 'fleeing' considering the sheer power disparity between them and the wyvern, but ultimately, it's just an animal. It's cruel to kill it for making a mistake which its mind is too simple to realize, and more importantly Ruby doesn't need to waste time taking down measly prey.
<> Fight. Killing the wyvern easily is well within Ruby's ability, and it might be nice to have some red meat as a snack before scoping out the nearby terrain for any interesting destinations. Ruby can't consume it
instantly, however, and while their scan indicates the wyvern is a solitary creature, taking a moment to slay and eat it could attract attention. Small chance of further encounter, with heightened chance of elite encounter.
-e
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