March 4th, 2185 -- 9:21 AM.

  Ok, deep breaths Zabrina – deep breaths.

  Currently, several toddlers consisting of the primary colors are running about your home.

  Like toddlers, they are running amok and ruining my stove. The likelihood of them burning the entire house down, causing an electric fire, flooding the place – they all rise the more time you spend panicking. Time to get to it then.

  I open the door, one of the yellow things standing outside.

  “Ma-ma?”

  “EE!” I shriek, stepping back at what could accurately be described as an oversized ant with six legs and a rigid abdomen. It creeps through the door, coiled legs nearly as long as my leg when unfurled pittering over the carpet floor. “GET BACK!” I screech as the words scrape against my tongue.

  And at once, it pauses. It just sits down. Its lower two twig-like legs are splayed out at the bottom while its front two support the rest of its weight. Mandibles click together, slight sparks forming between them.

  Why was that command what stopped it?

  “Allah, please give me answers,” I beg, kneeling down to get a closer look. Peculiarly, the outer layer is rather dull in color – there’s no reflection as the light hits its skin. “No exoskeleton?” That’s practically unheard of when it comes to ants, but I suppose everything is weird when it comes to Hydra. What is it waiting for, and why me?

  I decide to open my palm; it crawls forward, yet only places its head above my hand. The throat along the thing expands slightly as its mouth bulges, throwing up a marble-sized orb. I lift it up and start inspecting; as far as I can tell, it’s an ordinary yellow marble, aside from some needles on its surface. It’s obviously linked to this new creature, but how? It’s impossible to tell.

  Yet, if this one creature is responding to me, what does that tell me about the others? At the very least, if I don’t have any other options, I can always climb out the bedroom window and call pest control.

  Well, no time like the present! I step out and survey the chaos; some of the red snouted ones run amok and are chasing the blue penguin-shaped ones. In contrast, the yellow ones stick to and hang on the walls, some drawn to the lightbulbs on the ceiling. I clap my hands together; all of the creatures stop what they were doing. Like dolls given one order, they turn to face me.

  “Sit!” I ask, only for them to stand. ...“Sit?” And like that, they all follow this order.

  Haha. I’m now in control of various creatures. Isn’t that a surprise?

  I look over the damage at the kitchen; the sink’s overflowing, but on the bright side, that’s the only damage. The stove is on, sure, but it’s a simple fire; no gas is flowing.

  “What a mess,” I complain, noticing the dirty dishes. “I’ll need those cleaned up.”

  Movement then stirs behind me; the blue penguins rush forward, some on the countertop diving into the dirty sink water.

  “What are you doing?!” I rush over, only to stumble on some other ones running around on the ground. They reach up and flap their wings, attempting to climb up.

  Are… are they trying to get in?

  I kneel down and open my hands. Like clockwork, some climb into my arms. “You’re oddly lighter than I thought you’d be?” I comment, the creatures being oddly light as if I was holding a sponge. Even their skin is oddly soft too. I plop them down in the sink as well, noting the water level has fallen.

  Despite the displaced mass from the creatures, the level falls faster than it rises; the skin of the blue creatures deepens to a dark blue shade. It’s only seconds before all the water is absorbed by their spongy skin.

  “Oh?” I absentmindedly remark. I pick one up, wincing at its newly found weight. I push down on its head; like a faucet, water pours from its beak-shaped mouth. Unfortunately, because I lacked foresight, the water was sprayed directly into my face. Worse, it was into my mouth.

  “Gack!” I cough, letting it swirl. It continues to swirl as I let it sit there. For what used to be dirty a few seconds ago, it’s clean now; drinkable even. Hell, this might be more effective than my own filter! I take a gulp, somehow downing it. The taste is still weird, but that might actually be due to the absence of other gunk.

  If I ever need a way to produce distilled water, I have it now!

  Lastly, there’s the stove; some of the red ones gather round, starting a fire that they rest their bodies against. Some even lazily rest on the iron griddle directly – “And a heat resistance?”

  And yet, I’m in control of all of these creatures?

  How fascinating, honestly. I’m not even mad anymore, this is… revolutionary! I thought they were an odd sort of hivemind creature at first, but this? This level of adaptability from oversized insects resembling root vegetables?

  “Ok then! Time for a name for you guys!” Latin comes later, first is colloquial. The blue ones, they absorbed water; it’s tempting to go with water, but… they’re probably not limited to just water, right? I glance over at the vegetable oil left aside; I always used it for dim baji – despite Fi-fi’s complaint about it being ‘smelly’ (really, it’s just like scrambled eggs, she’ll get used to it) – however, the red ones seem to have used it as a drink, tipping the pitcher over into a bowl.

  “And they can use tools too?” Hiveminds possessing the skills to use tools akin to dolphins? Unfathomable really.

  I hit the jackpot with these things, this was worth nearly dying!

  … Ok, I really need to unpack that.

  But later! This is far more important! Existential dread can be unpacked anytime, anywhere! My research is in the now!

  I nab the pitcher from them with little complaint; I pour a bit on one of the darkened blue ones. While it expels the water as a response to the new substance and absorbs it, it starts to shake. It has a preference, but could absorb any liquid.

  Liquid… That’s it! “Dilqui!” I answer, holding one up. “Your name will be Dilqui!”

  “Dilqui!” it chirps, starting to click its tongue. All the other penguin-esque creatures – now Dilquis I suppose – click with the same cadence. A mechanism for communication too?

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Come to think of it, does it mate? I turn over its body around and around, noticing no obvious gonads. Unless it has a unique penis shape (like a duck I suppose), it doesn’t seem to have any exposed bits. Of course, that’s assuming this Dilqui has male features. I glance over at the other Dilquis; even at a first impression, they all look the same. “Asexual reproduction then?” I hypothesize. Perhaps my ‘plant’ theory wasn’t far off.

  “Ma-ma!” Again with that? One of them steps forward, holding a cool smooth blue marble not coated with saliva on its fins. Come to think of it, the yellow marble I had earlier didn’t have saliva either; how do these creatures eat then? Or perhaps more accurately, why do they eat? The red ones obviously drink oil, but is there more to it than that?

  Ack, what am I saying? I need to focus. I lean down and pick up the blue one, only to feel a sharp jab at my hand. “Ow!” I hiss, looking over; it’s a small paper cut, slightly bleeding. The Dilqui formerly holding the marble tilts its head, a slight tinge of red now visible on the tip of its wing. “Was it you?” I look over to the one in the sink and rub my thumb over its fin – the edge feels as sharp as a cleaver, one you’d use to cut up a particularly tough jackfruit with its sticky fibers. Almost as if it wanted to confirm my suspicions, one of the Dilquis on the counter starts slicing through an apple, easily cutting off chunks that the other creatures rush towards.

  “Oh, just stay right there!” I command, rushing back to my bedroom and grabbing my phone. C’mon, c’mon, I saved a picture… Ah! There’s the image I saved of the Aichoura’s wounds. Even my index finger is there as a reference. I go back into the ransacked kitchen turned study area, the creatures still nibbling on the chunks and moving about. Right, I didn’t command them using that other language… though oddly enough, they seem more receptive to just regular English. I wonder what changed.

  Still, now’s the time to confirm a guess. … Well, a different guess. I grab one and hold it in my palm, starting to compare its wingspan to the picture.

  “It’s a direct match,” I confirm. Of course, the cut wound is wider than the Dilqui’s wing width, but it’s as close as can be.

  1-20, rodents. Another one dead is another day of mental peace, and I will be making my comeback!

  Hah, enough projection. Time to come up with a proper name for these things in general. Considering their vegetable-like state, how about… “Tarcor? No, that’s not right? Gacabbe? No, why would I base them on a cabbage? What am I, a washed up saleswoman?

  “Ok, maybe it’s better to start backwards.” I look over the yellow ones first, attempting to unscrew the lightbulb. They manage to do so, some dexterously catching the thing before it shatters on the ground. Clever critters. I glance up at their handiwork, seeing them form a chain link that connects them all like a circuit.

  “So electricity-related then.” That does explain the little static clicking against their mandibles from earlier. Those long legs of theirs certainly look like they’d make great conductors anyhow, in spite of their organic property. Actually, how well can they conduct water? Most organic material is notoriously bad – even water is, or at least, distilled water is. I touch them, only to receive a small zap as my answer:

  “Thank you Allah, for not killing me for my stupidity,” I pray. Either way, what anagram can I form with electricity? Tudint? No, that’d imply they’re creating their own circuit; that’s not what’s happening here. How to re-arrange battery… Yatterb? Ugh, that sucks and I know it.

  Actually, can they store and transfer charge like one? I head off into the living room, some of the critters continuing to make themselves comfy. Thankfully, there’s none of any new colors. Rummaging around in a dresser, I find an uncharged Gamepal, back when it was popular in Abbu’s time. I rush over back to the kitchen, the yellow ones seeming to await a command.

  I pass them the device, placing it on the ground like a sacrifice. “Charge?”

  Two decide to plug their legs in, the small display crackling to life.

  “Aha!” I cry, pulling it up. “So you can generate electricity! Retegroan it is, then!” Like the Dilquis, they click and make a noise that the others start repeating. Though weirdly, they seem to understand my regular english now. That was… very quick.

  Now, that just leaves the red ones. They have a heat resistance, but why do they have one? If they originated from a forest, then forest fires aren’t a common occurrence. It’s not something any creature would willingly adapt to, especially when it’s far better to just run away.

  “So what do you do?” I ask I pick one up.

  I would get the answer to my question with a simple snort.

  As in, it breathed fire from its snout, burning the air besides my right ear. I blink, trying to process that.

  “Well, Berem it is!” I answer, all my questions about its heat resistance now answered. Rather than the same clicks, it instead snorts, turning the whole house into pig farm ASMR for a couple of seconds.

  “Now, what to call you…” If they’re able to do this, there are likely variations of these things. Just as we’d call a drone bee different from a worker bee, I need a general name for these things.

  …

  …

  Agh, nothing’s clicking for me. It’s ok; it can wait.

  My phone starts ringing; one of the Dilquis goes to pick it up, but I manage to grab it first and respond, not noticing who the caller. “Hello,” I start, deciding to pour some water in a pot, “Zabrina Lova speaking.”

  “Hey love~” a voice coos seductively, causing me to freeze as I start taking milk out of the fridge.

  “Fi-fi!” I call back, feeling myself smile wide as I take a small cup and pour… a whole cup of milk. Well, not a US cup, just a drinking cup’s worth. Just like Ammu, haha. “It’s been ages,” I continue, adding some chai grains to the pot. The gas turns on and prompts the attention of a Berem – seconds later, it decides to puff out a bit of fire that ignites the stove.

  “Yeah,” my wonderful girlfriend sighs, the only thing more beautiful than this moment of science. “Sorry, you know how work is.”

  “Always busy stamping the approval of others, right?” I laugh.

  “Mhm. Just haven’t been able to find time to return home, you know?”

  Haha… “Yeah,” I answer, feeling a pang in my chest.

  No, I shouldn’t be so selfish; she has work, of course she should focus on that and not me. That’s for the best, right?

  Of course it is, she just wants to continue advancing her career, that’s a good thing. We’ll be able to spend more time closely soon enough, once it’s all over.

  “Hey, are you cooking something?”

  “Yeah, chai.”

  “I can never understand how you tolerate that smell.”

  “It’s an acquired taste, white girl,” I tease. “I didn’t date you for your American perceptions of tea, now did I? You all prefer it far too light for your own good.”

  “Heehee! Got me there. Oh, um…” Why is she pausing? “About your approval.” Ah.

  “I know,” I sigh. “The deadline’s passed, so I can’t apply for a project.”

  “I mean, you could work under me.”

  “And what, render us both liable for an HR complaint?”

  She sighs: “Where was this reasonableness when you were working under my project?”

  “Well, you’re the one with the brain cells.” Besides, she was the one who came onto me. I’m not going to lie, that was very hot how she pinned me to the wall that one time when it was just the two of us in her private office.

  “True that. I don’t know what you’d do without me.”

  “Me neither,” I wistfully add. “Me neither.”

  “Either way, will you be able to pay off the mortgage again? You’d be living off of an assistant’s salary, but-”

  “No.” I’m not letting everything be taken away from me again.

  What was that just now?

  “Love,” Fiona replies hesitantly, “did you just mumble something?”

  “No,” I answer, getting those thoughts under control. “I mean, yes, but I don’t… want to live off of an assistant’s salary.” It’s not enough anyhow. Besides, I want to lead my own project. These creatures, they may just be the key. They may be my rise to fame, my magnum opus.

  Yes, they’re my magnum opus.

  “Do you… have anything??”

  “Ironically yes,” I answer, holding my hand out for a Retegroan to climb onto it.

  There’s a long, long sigh. “So, you plan to go without funding, huh? At this point, you may as well move into my apartment. The house is nice and all, but-”

  “No!” I start, huffing. “No, I… want this to be our dream house. Besides, you liked it too, right?”

  “...I do, but sometimes you have to let go of your dreams.”

  I give a long, long pause before I answer: “Not this one.”

  “Alright. I can’t stop you. But if you need a home, you know where you can live.”

  “I know. Talk later?”

  “When I have a moment.” We both hang up, the silence more unbearable this time around.

  I think to myself out loud: “How the hell am I going to find an income now?”