SCP 5652 [Human OC x Slime OC]

[NicTheDjinn]

Death.

When the sentence had been handed down, it felt like his blood had frozen within his veins.

Death.

He... He hadn't done anything wrong, though! Yes, he'd had the drugs on him, and yes they'd been in his system, but there was no way he could have-

It didn't seem to matter. He couldn't talk away the evidence, or change anyone's mind.

Hammurabi was going to die a criminal, and there was nothing he could do about it. No one would listen to him. No one cared.

He would be left on death row to await the date of his execution, with no room for appeal, no possibility of bail or parole... He would never leave.

Or that was what he thought, until he found himself transferred quite suddenly.

It was hard to believe a place like this really existed outside of spy novels or extra-terrestrial movies. The only way in was through layers and layers of unforgiving security and infrastructure meant to survive a nuclear war. Once one knew what sorts of things were held inside, however, it hardly seemed excessive anymore. Some things, while undoubtedly valuable to the future exploits of the human race, could not be allowed to actually interact with it.

On the deepest levels, things were held. Objects and entities that contained precious answers, and were often loathe to share them.

One particular room contained one of the newer, more... challenging entities. So far there had been little luck in cracking it, and a need for new, more expendable personnel had been established. Enter one inmate Hammurabi Avci.

There was a soft beeping, and a moment later the door to SCP-5652's room slid open on automated hinges, two men stepping inside.

“This’ll be the room you’re in charge of. Besides specimen care and collection, you’ll be cleaning, stocking, and keeping the logs up to date. We’ll start you on the training today, it’s important that you learn what you’re doing as soon as possible. You said you were a quick learner, right?”

“Y-yes!” The Rabi exclaimed, then looking embarrassed and quickly backtracking. “I-I mean. Y-yes, I. I am a very quick learner.” He couldn't help but radiate nervous energy, obviously anxious, but also a little hopeful... After all, this was a chance to stay alive, if nothing else. The jumpsuit he’d been given was ill-fitting and stained, and a rubber band was all that held his long curly hair up off his shoulders. The card key clipped to his breast pocket proclaimed his inmate number, and allowed access into this, and a few other rooms.

Taking in his surroundings, Hammurabi was a little worried he was in over his head. There was a myriad of equipment here he’d never seen, much less operated, along with things he was somewhat more familiar with, like bottles of bleach and nitrile gloves. It smelled… Sterile, in here, like the hospital. The combination was distinctly unsettling.

The main feature drew the attention of grey eyes, this cell largely occupied by a ceiling-to-floor tank. Inside...

What… Was that..?

“Yeah, that’s what you’ll be taking care of.” The other inmate stepped forward, tapping the glass. After a snort, he shrugged. “Don’t let it fool you, this thing is _dangerous._ That's why it's in Class Euclid.” His warning ended there, leaving out how each of the previous inmates had come to need replacing… Best not to scare off new blood on the first day. "You won't be exposed to it until you finish with the training, so to start with, you'll just be feeding, watering, and doing observational logs-" A klaxon interrupted the older inmate. "Shit... Alright, look, stay right here, I'll be back in a minute. Don't touch anything and keep the door closed!" He called over his shoulder, turning to sprint out.

With that, Rabi was left alone.

Or somewhat alone, anyway.

-----

One might say it was only a matter of time before he was gone after, but if you'd asked the cave's occupant, it wouldn't have thought so. Then again, it was a simple enough creature. It spent most of its time lounging in a crevasse in a cave, looking for all the world to see like a pool of water, at least up till it was more closely inspected... Many a creature had met their end within the cave and as time crawled by, years growing to decades and eventually centuries, legends and myths grew from the cave.

This wasn't to say he ate everyone that entered. No... That would be foolish. He only ate when hungry and only took humans if he was sure no other ones were around and he was particularly hungry. While spooky stories about the cave that ate people was enough to keep most humans away at the point, the superstitious townsfolk couldn't scare them all away. From time to time, the odd camper or spelunker would go missing, their clothes and equipment all that was to be found when someone came searching, just as the legend said.

Enough incidents came to pass that he found himself with some visitors, several of them. As such, he remained quiet and clear as the water he normally mimicked. He just had to wait for them to leave. The trouble was, they didn't. They measured the cave, mapping every inch it seemed. They searched, but found nothing, at least at first. Then it happened. One of them noticed the pool of water with no obvious way to feed it. Worse, as they peered deep into it and with the aid of a flashlight they spotted the perfectly smooth surface of what appeared to be a crystal clear egg-shaped stone.

The man's mistake was attempting to reach in to take the stone from the pool. The whole thing flared a muddy yellow before surging up and enveloping the man's head. He managed to kill three more before someone sunk a taser into him, losing his constitution as he lost consciousness. This hadn't helped his final victim however as he conducted electricity well enough to surge into them as well. They lived, sure, but the damage was quite permanent.

When he woke, he found himself in a clear tank and try as he might, he could not force himself free. Several escape attempts and murders later attempts to feed him while conscious were deemed too dangerous and so he would be shocked till unconscious before food was dropped inside. It was then that they discovered that he was, in fact, intelligent. It only took him a few feedings to figure out what was happening and so he started to lift himself up into the middle of the tank, bracing himself to hang without touching the bottom or top. It was decided that his tank was due for a redesign.

As he could not suspend himself like that indefinitely, he was knocked out during one of his resting periods then transferred into his current home. Though fully equipped to shock him out as needed, the lid had finally been automated so food could be placed inside, shut, then a second door opened to drop the food in safely. Any attempt to make contact with him still resulted in violent escape attempts, however. It seemed that the thing could understand language as it reacted to what was said around it, but had yet to make any attempt to communicate back.

Though he seemed contained, his tendency to attempt escape had prevented his assigned level from dropping, particularly as every attempt ended with him needing a new caretaker. At the very least, they had learned a few things during the time they'd had him. When he was completely at rest, he lost all color. When interacted with, he almost always flashed into a muddied yellow and sometimes switched to a brilliant, deep red. It was assumed that yellow was a warning color, but no one doubted that red signified anger. No other colors had been documented thus far.

The last caretaker assigned to him had been... Less than pleasant. He'd also grown too trusting of how secure his tank was. They lost yet another caretaker and now had a new rule to not provoke him unless specifically instructed to do so. Time for a replacement. On the bright side, in the rush to contain him once again, it was accidentally discovered that knocking the egg completely out of the slime would cause it to instantly liquify, though the egg seemed to retain "consciousness" as it had remained a solid yellow. As soon as the egg had hit the ground and, by extension, the puddle of his body, he reformed with no apparent issues, flared red, and went right back to attempting to escape.

Like all the ones before, he was brought in with the promise of a clean record if he cooperated with the scientists and did as he was told for the agreed-upon time period. Most D class personnel didn't survive to the end of that period, but that wasn't something they needed to know.

Entering his room, the new guy was soon enough being introduced to what appeared to be a tank filled with roughly 4 gallons of water. That was up till it was tapped on and he got to find out why he was affectionately known as the 'mood slime'. The reaction was instant, the liquid flooding a yellow color, the egg-like stone inside shooting away and hitting the opposite side with an audible and sharp 'clink!' When the owner of the offending tap suddenly was called away, the thing remained that same sick yellow, though the stone shifted with a quiet scrape to position itself directly opposite to the unfamiliar human.

------

Hammurabi had never felt as deep an animal reaction as in the moment the water had moved with sentience. His feet had moved him backwards without a thought, and the man had startled further as the stool he'd backed into hit the concrete floor. The loud metallic bang had still been ringing in his ears when the alarm had started, and he'd barely worked out what the man had said to him before going out the door.

Then he was alone with it, watching it move in a way that made his stomach flip. It was watching him. It was aware.

The blond swallowed thickly, feeling bile rise in his throat. Was he shaking? A quick glance at his hands- yes, there was a hairline tremor running through his fingers.

God, this was why he never watched horror films, he couldn't take the suspense..! Why had that other guy just told him it was dangerous, and left?! He couldn't have taken him too?! No, he couldn't do this, he didn't know what that was, he, he had to run or-


Okay.

Okay. Breathe. Breathe in for eight, hold for eight, breathe out. Repeat.

Standing still, his arms around his waist, the blonde closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. Nothing had even happened, it had just moved! Strange things moved all the time, i-it could just be like. A slime mold, or weird worm colony or something... Brain-eating amoebas were a thing, maybe it was a big one of those..? There was no need to get this worked up over some gelatin that hadn't set correctly!

He let his eyes open, looking at the thing again.

"Okay. Be logical. It's contained, right..? So even if it is dangerous, it can't get out. They wouldn't have left you in here if it could get out... Right?" Grey eyes roamed over the tank, checking the edges to prove to himself that it wasn't actively leaking out and coming to eat his brain.

-----

Nothing further came. No insults, no mocking, no horrible tapping... No. No, this new guy seemed at least as afraid as he was. Not a threat, at least not for now. Slowly, ever so slowly, his core drifted away from the thick plexiglass and back to center mass. A little while later and the color faded some, though the yellow tint never quite left his system.

Now that he'd settled and accepted that it was probably safe, though he couldn't quite shake the feeling with there being a new person here, he started his usual routine. While the man looked to make sure there weren't any leaks he might be able to escape from, the slime was now actively seeking out exactly that.

Sadly, like most other days, there were none to be found. All the same, he pressed firmly against every seam to try and weaken it. If he was lucky, he might be able to have an effect over time, but... These humans were terrifyingly determined to keep him here. He just wanted to go back to his cave... He hated it here. He was so bored! Sure he spent most of his time as a puddle back in his cave, but he did venture out sometimes and there was stuff to listen to as well as scents to breathe in! He couldn't smell anything in here other than himself and the food and water they dropped into his tank once a day. There was nothing else...

The only thing to hear was the humans too and even that was muffled by the plexiglass so he had to strain to understand. He didn't even care what these humans were talking about, but when you had absolutely nothing to do, it still became the highlight of your day to just listen to them speak to one another. Not so much when their attention was turned on them... Then it was either scientists taking wild guesses about him or those bad people that fed him taking a shot at him. He hated them both... He sure as hell didn't want to talk to anyone he'd met so far, though they knew he could produce sound. It was hard not to notice when he cried out in pain every time they shocked him.

His search of the bottom produced nothing, as usual, leaving the curly-haired man to watch as he fluidly climbed his tank to the top to check there as well. Ugh... Nothing as usual. It was hard to say if it was amusing or terrifying, but the next moment he was dropping down to the bottom again with a splat, the deep red bloomed in him to replace the yellow, egg-like core thunking down into the bottom corner, once again opposite to the D-class still in the room with him.

-----

Wide, grey eyes followed the creature’s every move. How was it climbing like that? Each maneuver was so fluid... The movement would almost be soothing, if the source wasn’t so unsettling. His skin crawled imagining what the entity’s texture had to be like. Sticky and cold, or covered in rows of tiny, sharp legs? Either way, the blonde couldn’t help a shudder.

He took in another deep breath, banishing the foreign texture from his mind and body. The other guy said he wouldn’t be exposed to it until he finished his training, whatever that entailed. It probably wouldn’t ever actually touch him, because of the vague inherent danger… Surely.

“A-are you trying to get out?” His voice was soft, not wanting the anger the being, and not daring to look away from the SCP’s escapades. “I guess you don’t like feeling trapped, huh?” Realizing how similar their situations really were brought a frown to the man’s face. “I… I can relate, actually." The sound that burst forth from his throat was something between a chuckle and a sob. "I’ve kind of been shuffling between cages of my own this last couple of months.”

First the jail cell he’d been thrown in when arrested, then the prison cell he was held in before and during his trial, and finally the cell on Death Row he’d been in once they labelled him guilty. Even now he was still in a cell of sorts, though for someone other than himself... Even if it very much this was his prison too. Class D personnel were all other Death Row inmates, from what he could gather. It wasn't hard to put together that they were here to do things that other, less disposable people couldn’t, or wouldn’t...

Hammurabi jumped a bit when the creature fell back down to the bottom of the tank, having been lost in his own musings. Quickly, he wiped the moisture that had been collecting from his eyes, sniffing once.

“Red… Is probably bad, isn’t it?” Leaning closer to the glass, he could see how deep the color was. “Yellow is… Normal? Or awake? Before he tapped on the glass you were just clear… Maybe that’s for when you’re sleeping?”

It wasn't like this creature could answer his questions, but he felt the need to ask them anyway.

Much to his surprise, when spoken to, it wasn't to insult him, but rather to ask the obvious. Hn. This one wasn't very bright was he...? Despite his lack of answer, he kept right on talking to him as he worked, proving himself to be chatty. The more he spoke the more distinctly different he became and these differences were being noticed. Giving up, he dropped down and settled into his own rather alien version of 'huffy'.

Then he noticed the wiping of the other's eyes. Was he... Crying? That was the first time he'd seen something like that, at least in as long as he'd been here. Well... Except for a couple of the people he'd been in the process of killing, but other than that, no one. Once again, his color shifted, this time from the bright red to yellow again, but it was different this time. Pity he was new or he would realize that everything he was doing from this point on was completely undocumented. The yellow he took on now wasn't the muddy shade from before, but a bright, soft one. The color looked more befitting of a baby chick. He gathered himself up into a more spherical blob, rather than lazily filling the bottom of the tank, core drifting back to the middle.

The sphere did nothing for a moment, thinking, then changed shape once again. For the first time in ages, he brought himself up tall, a segment near the top growing narrow to leave another sphere at the top, the tube-like shape of the rest of it, flattened a little, growing wider then rounder, a tendril splitting off on either side. Soon enough those basic shapes settled and gained detail and a moment later the man would find himself gazing at something that looked rather human!

More correctly, it looked almost like a human made from clay. The details were there, but carved in almost and the 'hair' was little more than shimering sheets that hung down and rejoined at the shoulders and back. One thing was for certain, it was startlingly pretty for something that lacked breasts, hips, genitalia, and... Well, legs for that matter as those just sort of melted together and met in that goopy sphere that he'd formed out of, which was of course much smaller. Ah, there was another thing that was very clear too. It was definitely looking right at him.

The pale yellow creature watched him for a moment longer then a muffled sound came from within the tank, carrying a distinctive reverberation that didn't sound like it was completely caused by his tank. "The colors mean different things, it depends on the shade. No color means I am not feeling anything at the time or, yes, that I am sleeping. Why are you trapped here, human? Did you kill people too?" He asked, the tone weirdly innocent for what was being asked.

-----

“Oh, that’s a pretty shade of yellow.” The human murmured, smiling just a little. “So red is bad, the darker yellow is normal, and this is… I don’t know, content, maybe?” He asked, talking just for the sake of not sitting in silence… This building was so weirdly quiet, enough that one could hear the filaments in the lights buzzing.

“Are you going to try again?” He continued softly, as the being formed up into a sphere. “You’re pretty tenacious, huh..? I’m envious.” The smallest smile graced his features, Hammurabi starting to feel a bit more relaxed now that he was sure the thing couldn’t get out.

But of course that relaxation couldn’t last.

As the entity first began taking shape, he hadn’t realized what was happening.

Was it trying to reach the top again..? Or fill the whole of the tank..? Maybe it was bored? Head cocked to the side, as he watched with a sort of content interest.

Another sphere, a… Column..? What was it-

With the same sort of realization that one might have after seeing a deer eat a baby bird, Hammurabi’s little smile dropped. For the second time in his brief experience here, he found himself against the back of the room as the stool fell and clanged against the ground.

“I-It… It’s a p-person?” His voice barely made it out of his throat. The buzzing of the lights were forgotten, his own rushing blood the only thing registering to his ears. It was staring right at him; it had made eyes to stare right at him… There was no question that it was aware of him, now. But why had it decided to look human...ish? Was this normal?

Then, just to spook him even more, it spoke.

Shivers ran up and down the blonde’s spine as he tried to make sense of what he’d been asked. It had asked him things?? It could talk??

“I-It… It can talk..?!” His voice spoke the question out loud, Rabi not even aware it had made it outside the privacy of his mind.

-----

Still talking. He really was quite talkative! They listened on as they reformed themselves into something more familiar for the human, something they hadn't done in what felt like forever. How long has it been? The last friend they had been the witch that had freed them... They didn't even know what year it was or even if they were in the same country, there were so many unfamiliar accents that they couldn't be sure which was local. Not that it really made a difference to them, given their circumstances.

Then everything changed. Why was he upset? Was he afraid? Why? They hadn't even threatened him. Such a strange human. All the same, it made them worried, a muddy purple swirling to taint the cute chick yellow, one shifting to the other till they were completely dull purple. Now that they had a face, it and human-like body, it was easier to read them even if they didn't know the many colors they emoted in. They looked anxious, slim mauve hands pressing to the glass as they peered at the man that was to be their new caretaker.

"I can speak and I am a person," they confirmed, looking rather unsure of themselves. They just weren't used to interacting with people and they hadn't been very good at it to begin with. "Did I say something wrong? It's okay if you don't kill people, not everyone does," assured the slime as if that might be a comfort. It did make it obvious that his view on how the world worked wasn't quite in line with the norm. "You said you were envious of me. Why? This is all I have. Do you like small spaces? There are better ways to get that. I know I didn't leave my cave much, but I don't like it in here. It's boring and I'm always hungry. It's not nice in here."

-----

The blond swallowed, taking that all in. So… So it could talk, and apparently was also sentient. Past the lingering terror, he suddenly felt kind of dumb for all the nervous talking he’d been doing… It had been watching and listening this whole time, while he chattered like a frightened child.

Grey eyes moved over the form the creature had taken, still trying to assure himself that it couldn’t get out. They hadn’t told him it was a person, they’d just referred to it like… Well, some sort of weird animal or something. It was so weird to see it form expressions, like a real live human. It… Wasn’t human, right? Not anymore anyway, but maybe it had been once..?

“A-ah. Um.” Hammurabi swallowed, staying where he was. “I just. I’m new to all of this, they didn’t tell me you were a person?” Come to think of it, they hadn’t told him much at all, had they? He’d basically come to this compound, spent a few days getting adjusted, and then been brought here, and left alone without any sort of instruction. Come to think of it, that was oddly reminiscent of his last job, before getting arrested. Nice to know things seemed to work the same, wherever he was. At least this time it wasn’t at a register with an angry woman screaming at him as he desperately tried to void her order.

Right, more important things to think about than the old grocery job.

“I… I’m just a bit startled, I guess. It’s uh. Been a shitty few months of not-so-great surprises.” The blond crossed his arms over his stomach, taking a tentative step closer. “I. N-no I’ve never killed anyone, though I’m g-getting that it seems like a lot of the others have. I m-mean. I didn’t even d-do what landed me in here, even though no one seems to believe me. Um. I guess I just. I was envious that you kept trying, even though you couldn’t get out? After the trials and appeals with no one listening to me, I kind of accepted that cell was where I was going to end up.” Up a bit closer, he could take in the detail of the body, the deepness of the color… It was a nice purple, though it seemed it meant something bad. Nervousness? “You lived in a cave..? Is that where they found you? What uh. Are you..? Were you a person- like a human, before, and something happened..?” In this small of a tank, he could understand the thing being bored… But why would they let it be hungry if it was sentient?

Come to think of it, feeding it had been one of his listed duties, hadn’t it? Surely if it was hungry, he should feed it… Looking around the room again, he approached what appeared to be a deep freezer of some sort, connected to a chute that went up into the ceiling. The guy had said not to touch anything, but. If feeding it was part of his job, surely this would be okay? He didn’t want it to starve! The freezer door opened seamlessly, a rush of cold air making the blonde shiver. It was filled with paper-wrapped packages, reminiscent of a butcher’s shop. That was for a reason, it turned out, Hammurabi greeted by the sight of a slab of some mystery meat after pulling the wrapping back. Gross.

“Is this your food? How do I get it in there?” He asked, returning as close as he dared to the tank, looking for a food slot or drawer or something.

-----

The slime looked on as they were, in turn, looked at. The initial fear seemed to be dying down in the human to be replaced by curiosity. That was good... Humans were more volatile when frightened, in their experience. "I don't think they think I'm a person. They don't treat me like one," shrugged the slime, answering honestly. They listened on as the blond told them a little about himself, feeling a measure of pity for him. It had been a long time since anyone had bothered talking to them with the expectation of getting an answer. The interviews had expected responses of course, but he hadn't wanted to talk to the people he knew were responsible for his capture and after the interviews had stopped, all they were ever told about was how bored the person feeding them was or the things they wanted to do, sometimes to them and sometimes other people. Nothing he'd particularly cared about.

"You didn't do what they imprisoned you for? I suppose there isn't enough magic left here for much in the way of spells or they could find that out and who is actually responsible." Slowly their colors were shifting again, the muted purple swirling its way back to baby chick yellow and with it, the anxious expression faded away again. Ah, so that's why he was envious. "Well... There isn't much else to do other than try to get out. I can barely hear you. I can't hear anything else in here... It's maddening," they explained simply. They were having a conversation now... A real conversation! They hadn't had a proper conversation since their only friend had passed so long ago. How they missed her...

"That was my last home, yes. As humans became more aggressive towards beings like me, I had to isolate myself. Caves make good shelter so food wanders in often enough. They found me there, yes. I was a local legend apparently... I didn't mean to draw that much attention to myself, but I was hungry. Perhaps I ate someone of note? I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to explore a cave everyone says has a monster in it." They shook their head then, seeming to refocus and watch the human as they spoke again.

"I am a person, but I'm not human. I have always been like this. My soul was bound to this stone here." They motioned to the upside-down drop floating in the middle of their chest. "If I was a human soul before that, I don't remember it. I suppose it's possible." A shrug of slick shoulders came, their mannerisms clearly human-like even though they had been little more than a blob mear moments ago. They held themselves a little straighter when the blond moved away and towards the freezer they knew their food to be kept.

When they saw the door opened, a little orange-tinted their cute yellow hue only for the color to suddenly swirl wildly and take the color over entirely when the bundle was brought over. It wasn't hard to tell they knew what it was the other was holding, their now orange features looking quite excited. Unfortunately, they could only give half an answer, but they were clearly eager to share it all the same. They surged up to the top of their tank again, losing much of their form in the process. "It comes from here!" They eagerly announced. Thankfully, where they were pressed up was enough of an indicator to help the other along.

On the outside of the tank where they huddled, was indeed a slot. Next to it were five buttons with instructions next to them. Press the first green button to open the slot. Press the red one to close it. Press the second green button to open the slot on the inside and press the second red button to close it. The buttons were labeled 'INSIDE' and 'OUTSIDE' respectively. The fifth button was a yellow one. This one instructed the user to press it to shock the subject should they attempt or have succeeded to bypass the inner slot. For the moment, eager as the slime clearly was, they remained a few inches below the metallic top of his tank and would go no closer.

-----

“I d-don’t think they really treat any of us as people. Well. They probably treat you worse, it’s just easy to tell that they sort of see people like me- the D-Class- as expendable. I’ve only been here for... five days? And I already get the feeling the guards would shoot first and ask questions later. If they asked questions at all. I’m pretty sure I was woken up by gunfire yesterday night.” The blond frowned softly. It was still better than Death Row, if only because he felt less like he had an expiration date stamped on his back. Now it just felt sort of like there was a loaded gun somewhere in his vicinity, but not pointed at him quite yet.

“No, I didn’t… It’s sort of a long story, and every time I tell it just the whole thing just feels less and less real... The gist of it is that I got in with some bad people that I thought I could trust and they pinned something on me to get the cops off their trail.” He sighed softly. “I was really stupid. I just, you know uh. Wanted to blow off steam after work, went to a club, tried some X… Tried a lot more X over a few months until they knew me by name. I let one of the dealers crash at my apartment, and next thing I know the cops are busting in, and finding the shit everywhere. Someone tipped them off that I was the leader of this big operation, and… That was that.” The man’s expression betrayed how upset he still was over it all… He’d thought they were his friends- but apparently a scapegoat was all he’d been to them.

The faces of his parents and sister in that courtroom still haunted him. They’d believed his side of the story at least, but… Their testimony had ultimately not counted for much in the eyes of the judge or jury. His younger sister had been inconsolable when the final verdict was handed down.

“What, wait. Magic?” Grey eyes looked over the creature-no person’s-form, looking for any sort of signs of deceit and seeing none… Though a being that could change its shape at will probably wouldn’t give themselves tells. “Magic… Er. That’s not…” The blonde trailed off, realizing the futility of telling a sentient slime that magic wasn’t real. At least it wasn’t seemed to be tolerating speaking to him, even if they were apparently having a hard time hearing him.

“It must have been lonely living in a cave… Unless there were more like you? Did you have like. Friends? A Family?” He asked, feet carrying him across the bare cement floor, package in hand. Wait, had it said… Ate someone. Hammurabi frowned, looking at the wrapped meat in his hand again, paling slightly. There was no way this was human meat, right? That cooler had been full, where would they even get that much?

No, no it had to be like. Beef, or something. That would be so much easier to get, right?

Luckily the now-shapeless being’s movement was enough to reveal to Rabi where the feeding slot was. As he moved closer, he took in their shift in color. So orange was… Hungry? Excited? It was a shame he didn’t have anything to write his observations down on, having some sort of key would probably be helpful for doing his job.

The slot appeared pretty straightforward, even more so with the buttons labeled like they were. That made him wonder if someone had gotten the button order wrong before. The yellow button gave him pause… Why would they need something like that..? He’d been having a somewhat pleasant interaction with the being, but this failsafe wouldn’t have been put in place without reason, surely. Had they gotten out before? The other guy had said they were dangerous, and they had even admitted to eating people… And he’d been wrong about people's intentions before.

He swallowed while pressing the first green button with a shaky finger, hydraulics hissing as the slot slid open. “So… How long have you been here?” Gingerly, he raised the wrapped package up to the slot, trying to shake the frozen slab of ‘beef’ free of the paper and into the little chamber. He really didn’t want to touch it with his bare hands. It was frozen at least, so the sound it made hitting the metal was more of a thunk than a wet slap… Hammurabi was fairly sure his stomach wouldn’t have been able to take that. “It seems like it must have been a while? Did you have other people taking care of you?” The little trap door slid closed with the first red button, and with a press of the second green button the inner door opened to grant the slime access to its meal. Hammurabi found himself stepping back, both curious and a little anxious about how the other ate.

[NicTheDjinn]

"From what I have overheard, they only shoot first if they have orders to do so, but yes, you're expendable. They don't risk anyone of value on anything that they're unsure of safety-wise. There is no question with me. Given the chance, I would kill them." The statement was eerily fank and matter-of-fact on all counts. "I heard the noise too, but it didn't come from in here. I wonder who tried to get out..." He knew little of the other creatures and objects held here due to the foundation's insistence on secrecy, but he knew he wasn't the only sentient thing that was kept here, nor was he the only one that was against their imprisonment.

"If you know who did it, why not tell them?" He questioned back and though he wasn't exactly wrong, he clearly didn't understand how complicated something that simple was made by the justice system. Comically, the slime cocked its head when questioned about magic only to smile, his color shifting to a startlingly deep blue, but not saying anything as the man trailed off at the realization that he was telling a clearly magical creature that magic didn't exist. He looked so smug too... "There used to be much magic in this world. Little of it is left, only little pockets and residue... I wouldn't be able to survive here without this." He admitted, touching the center of his chest, right over the stone within him.

When questioned about himself, his color lightened some and grew muddy blue as his expression saddened. "Not in a very, very long time. I didn't have to hide or go hungry back then. I miss Dahlia... She was the only friend I ever had. Witches had longer lives back then, but she was still human. She died a long, long time ago. She killed my creator. She was so kind... I miss her very much." So he could apparently be friendly with humans! A pity he didn't seem particularly against killing them at the same time... Admittedly, that had more to do with his current situation than aggression towards the species as a whole.

The muggy blue vanished as soon as his excitement took over, however, eager for his meal as he'd gone without a feed in a few days while a replacement was found. He waited patiently, not reaching up to try and take his meal early. The meat itself was shaped similarly to a good-sized and plump chicken breast, but the color made it clear that this wasn't what it was. The hunk of meat outwardly looked very similar to beef, indeed. The second slot opened and his meal dropped down onto him with an audible slap, betraying the fact that he did have surface tension, enough for the meat to solidly land upon.

He then happily absorbed his expertly butchered bicep, dropping down to the bottom again and settling in to digest. Ugh. Of course, it was cold... Warm was always, better, but he'd never had a warm meal here that he hadn't killed himself. He assumed a bright canary yellow now as he slowly defrosted and dissolved his meal. Honestly, that was all the excitement when it came to feeding him as the rest was rather boring. Now that he was settled into his small meal, he was more than happy to talk with what had quickly become his favorite attendant. "I don't know. I have little reason to keep track of time here. There are no seasons in here, but it feels like it's always winter. Always cold and hungry."

He assumed a more human-like shape, though he was a blob from the waist, almost like he was sitting at the bottom of his tank. "There were others before you. It was easier to kill them at the start... Over the years, they got better at keeping me locked up. Now I only get to eat the stupid ones... I don't think I will eat you though. You seem nice enough and make good company." He added, sounding happy as a clam the entire time, if a little pouty at the more frustrating parts. Despite this, his color only shifted slightly at these points so he seemed to be in a good mood.