| Speculative biology is simultaneously a science and form of art in which one speculates on the possibilities of life and evolution. What could the world look like if dinosaurs had never gone extinct? What could alien lifeforms look like? What kinds of plants and animals might exist in the far future? These questions and more are tackled by speculative biologists, and the Speculative Evolution welcomes all relevant ideas, inquiries, and world-building projects alike. With a member base comprising users from across the world, our community is the largest and longest-running place of gathering for speculative biologists on the web. While unregistered users are able to browse the forum on a basic level, registering an account provides additional forum access not visible to guests as well as the ability to join in discussions and contribute yourself! Registration is free and instantaneous. Join our community today! |
| Knit Wars; A story based on the homonymous sporecasts | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Apr 23 2016, 04:45 AM (372 Views) | |
| Ebervalius | Apr 23 2016, 04:45 AM Post #1 |
![]()
Transhuman
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
This is a story I made when I was 12 years old, originally in a comic book format. As said in the description, it's based on an old sporecast series by the same name. Well... Here we go: Knit Wars I: Creepy Army Chapter I It was a sunny day in the Roof of the World, the majestic Himalayas of Nepal. Among the mighty, slumbering giants of solid stone, there was a small, quiet town. Well, maybe not so quiet, for in this town there was a marketplace, and if you've ever been to such a place before, then you must know how they can be noisy. Anyway, in the marketplace there was a young man in his way back home, carrying some food and firewood, distractedly greeting people as he passed by them. "This is such a beautiful day..." He thought "I wish the weather was always like this." The man kept walking until he arrived at the very edge of the town, where there was a small, simple house. As he got near the door, his smile suddenly vanished from his face. Inside the house there was someone crying and sobbing desperately. "Oh Lord Birupakshya, what is it this time?" He knocked on the door. Nothing. He knocked again. This time the door was opened by a young girl with teary eyes and a miserable expression. "H... Hi, Xian." She managed to say while sobbing. "Çope..." Xian replied "What happened to you?" Çope starting crying again. Her older cousin rolled his eyes. "The other kids..." She started explaining "they keep being mean to me! I'm tired of having no friends, Xian, it's not fair! It's not my fault I was born without an arm..." Xian hugged her and wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks. "This has stop" he thought "it's already the third time this week." He sighed. He knew a way to help her. But was it safe? Perhaps his worries about safety were causing his cousin too much suffering. He was the only one she had, and it was his job to care for her and make her happy. "If there is something that can be done... So be it." "Hmm... Çope?" The girl looked at him in response "I... I have heard of a powerful witchdoctor living in a cabin in the East, not very far away from here. I didn't tell you before because I thought it was too dangerous... But I guess you deserve a better life than this." Çope's expression suddenly changed from sad to hopeful and intrigued "Are you willing to go after this man to solve your problem?" "What a stupid question, Xian." Çope answered "Of course I'm willing to do that! And when I do, all will be different. The others will no longer mock me, I'll be just like everyone else!" Xian laughed. "Alright, then!" He said "Just let me go get my stu..." The young man was suddenly interrupted when Çope said "No! You don't need to come with me! I can do this by myself, I need to!" Xian was reluctant. What was he supposed to do? Should he let her go by herself? Even Çope had her pride, and he was actually glad she had it. What would she be it wasn't for they tiny sliver of self esteem? "Fine..." He said "you can go. Just... Please, take care." Çope grabbed her coat, kissed her cousin in the cheek and said "Don't worry, I'll be fine, Xian. I can take good care of myself." Then she walked out the door. Xian was a bit nervous, but it was already done. The only thing he could do now was sit down and wait. "She'll be fine. I guess..." The girl's pitch-black hair waved as the cold winds came down from the mountain tops. Still no sign whatsoever of the dreaded cabin. She knew her cousin wouldn't lie to her though. What reason did he have to do so? Why would he do such vile a thing? No, Xian had definitely told her the truth, or at least everything he knows. It had to be around there somewhere... Nothing. She kept marching, always on the lookout for anything that even remotely resembled a cabin. Suddenly, Çope saw a small animal at the distance. It had a clearly canine silhouette, but as she got closer, the girl could see the creature was no average dog. Far from it. Its skin was made of a pale-green cloth with bizarre stitches on it, and its eyes were like blood-red buttons. It was definitely unlike anything she had ever seen before. "Now that's a strange... Thing." She said to herself. To her surprise, however, the odd creature answered. "Me? Strange?" He said "You clearly haven't seen any of our kind before... Have you?" That was unexpected. "You... You can talk!?" Çope asked. " Well, of course I can." The creature answered "Why wouldn't I? By the way, my name is Seth. Who are you?" "My name is Çope." She said "It's... Nice to meet you, Seth." "So... Çope, you seem to be lost. What are you doing out here?" And the girl answered "I'm looking for a witchdoctor in a cabin. As you can see, I don't have a right arm, which is why I'm looking for him. Do you happen to know anything about this?" Seth was intrigued. "Witchdoctor, eh?" He said "You're lucky. I think I know exactly who you are looking for, child." "You do!?" She asked. "Yes. Come, follow me and I'll take you there." The girl and the dog-like critter walked for many hours. Çope was exhausted. Seth, however, didn't seem to be tired at all. That was definitely strange... Anyway, it was almost dusk, and they hadn't arrived at the cabin yet. "Where's this damn cabin?" The girl asked, impatiently. In response, Seth simply nodded to the top of a small mountain. There it was. The cabin was a mighty-looking two-story wooden structure, with a stone chimney smoking furiously. It was a beautiful and relieving sight, especially when that was precisely the thing you were looking for in such a desolate place. "It's cool, isn't it?" Seth said "Well, enough talking and staring. Time to climb this thing, shall we?" And so they did. Climbing the mountain was surprisingly easier than walking to that place. She was wondering if Xian thought the cabin was closer to town than it really was. That didn't matter anymore, for there she was. The entrance was guarded by a human-looking creature whose skin was also made of cloth, and whose eyes also looked like buttons. His yarn-like hair was the color of lavender, and he was wearing a brown, stitched long coat and a sombrero-like hat, which covered his face in shadows. "Halt!" Said the figure "Who are you? Friend or foe?" Çope didn't know what to say. Fortunately, Seth was there. "Don't worry, Custer." He said "She's with me. Çope, the witchdoctor you're looking for is inside." The girl delves into the cabin. The inside was beautiful, with walls made of solid wood. The floor was covered in elegant Persian tapestry. But by far the thing most worthy of attention was the man who was sitting in a chair in front of the fireplace. He was big and menacing, using a suit which covered almost all of his body, a which included two extra limbs, both just above his shoulders. The one in the left looked like a human arm, only bigger. The other one looked more like a big serpent, with a multitude of little fingers in the place of it's head, which at that moment were being used to hold a wooden pipe. On his head he was using a wig made of grey yarn, and a white button glued to his forehead. Black stripes started just below his red eyes an ran along his cheeks, as if he was crying tears of ink. "Why, hello there!" Said the man, getting up from his chair "Who are you? Child? What brings you to this place?" Çope hesitated for a few seconds before asking "My name is Çope. Are... Are you the witchdoctor? I need someone who can make me grow a right arm." The man smiled creepily. "You have come to the right place. I am the Knit Master. Pleased to meet you. So, would you like a cup of hot chocolate, Çope? It came straight from the highlands of Guatemala." "No, thanks." Çope answered "I just want an arm." The Knit Master rose an eyebrow. "You're a pretty straightforward girl, aren't you? Well, thy will be done. Stay right there and don't move, please." Çope did as the Knit Master instructed her. Anxious, the girl closed her eyes. At that very moment, thousands of tiny needles were shot from the fingers of the witchdoctor's strange suit. An overwhelming pain took over her entire body as the needles pierced her flesh. It was so strong she couldn't even scream, and had absolutely no idea of what was going on there. The excruciating sensation persisted for about two long minutes, before it was all done. Free of the needles, the girl looked at herself, and the first thing she saw was the new, previously absent limb. It was exactly like the right arm of anyone else, except for it's odd stitches cloth-like texture. Still, she loved it "I have to arms! I... I..." Suddenly, she noticed something horribly wrong. She stared in horror as she found out the cloth-like skin was not confined to her new arm. Her entire body was now stitched and cloth-like. "What have you done to me!?" Çope screamed. "Isn't it obvious?" Asked the Knit Master in a sarcastic tone "I've given you the arm you wanted so much." The girl was stupefied. "What kind of sick witchdoctor are you?" She said, as she started walking towards the door. She was unable to leave, however, as the Knit Master quickly captured her with his tentacle-like arm, squeezing her. "Sorry, Çope," he said "but I cannot let you leave this cabin. There are already too much people outside who know of this place's existence, which is in fact the very reason you came to me in the first place. I cannot take such risks, especially now that you have such a... Notorious appearence." "Let me go!" She cried out desperately "You bastard!". Calmly, the Knit Master sighed and said "I think I've made myself very clear. You will have to stay within this cabin, Çope. At least for now..." Then, he opened a hidden door on the cabin's northern wall, and locked the girl inside the dark secret room. "Sweet dreams..." "I can't believe this is happening..." Çope was terrified. What would she do now? What was Xian thinking in that very moment? He must be so desperate and preoccupied... Anyway, she couldn't go back to her town like this. What would her cousin say? What would the other kids say? That was completely out of question... The Knit Master didn't do that by accident. He knew exactly what he was doing, and at the very moment she entered the cabin, he knew that he couldn't let her out, or else he would be exposed. And now she was trapped. "I'm doomed..." "Good morning, Çope." Said the Knit Master, opening the hidden door. "What do you want from me?" The girl asked, and the strange man replied "Nothing at all, I'm just wishing you a good morning." Çope was puzzled by the Knit Master's unusual ways. "Can I go away now?" She asked, but her question was simply ignored. She sighed. "So..." Said the girl "why do you live here in that funny suit with all these strange creatures?" And the Knit Master answered "Okay... I guess I can answer that question. You're my prisoner anyway... Well, it all started when I was a young lad. Back then I made an interesting discovery. I doubt you're aware of it, but there is a green, crystalline substance called Ypervita, which occurs mainly in the form of geodes. This substance has many odd properties, and one of them is making things come to life. In fact, Ypervita is what make Knits, the 'strange creatures' you asked about, alive. In their home world, Knits are divided into two ancient warring groups, vulgarly known as 'Creepy' and 'Cute'." "This Ypervita made me relatively famous at the time. Clearly, I made a considerable amount of money out of it. Anyway... Later I got married and had to stop my research for a while. It was in this period that I became increasingly disillusioned with the world around me. When I got divorced, I came to a conclusion: humans are vermin, Çope. They don't care about anything, not even the world that provides them their very sustenance. They treat their own kind like filth. They are... hypocrites. Do you think they are truly worthy of ruling the Earth? I think not. That's why I used all my money to build this cabin. Here, I made myself this Knit Suit and started gathering an army of mostly 'creepy' Knits to save the Earth and put Mankind out of it's misery... Of course, I'm facing some resistance, but that should soon be solved." Çope found the Knit Master's ideas surprisingly accurate. People really were terrible. They indeed treated others very badly, as she was treated by the other kids back home. Perhaps a Knit-dominated world would be truly better than this... "I'm in." She said. The Knit Master rose an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" "I want to help you rule the World. You're right about people. Plus, I'm stuck here anyway. What do I have to loose?" She continued. "Are you sure, Çope?" Asked the Knit Master "War is dangerous. I don't think it's appropriate for such a young girl like you." Çope insisted. She truly wanted to be a part of it. The Knit Master smiled. "Okay then..." He said " In this case I'm proud to have you among our ranks." They shook hands, as if by doing so they were sealing the fate of the World. "Yes, Master..." |
|
The Sirens of the Land of Fire Codex Ebervaliorum Spoiler: click to toggle
| |
![]() |
|
| Ebervalius | Apr 23 2016, 05:21 PM Post #2 |
![]()
Transhuman
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Chapter II Vanger was excited. Vacation had arrived at last. The streets were oddly empty, and he and Alice were looking for a nice place to take some coffee and chat for while. "Funny..." He said "I remember that before I came here, all my friends said I was crazy for wanting to go to a boarding school in China. Come on, despite all the pollution, this place is pretty nice!". "Yeah." Alice replied "Specially now that we're free from school. Man, I was tired of it all..." Vanger nodded. Indeed, it is something of general knowledge that school can be very tiring. Fortunately they always give people a break so that they don't drop dead from exhaustion. Suddenly, Vanger saw something strange. In the top of a small building some 500 meters away there was a strange figure. It looked like it had no legs. Something it seemed to have, however, was a long tail with a small blade at its very tip. "Oh my..." He said "Alice, do you see that weird thing?" "Of course I don't, Vanger." Alice answered "In case you don't remember, I'm blind." Vanger flushed. "Oops... Sorry for that." While they were talking, the odd creature soared above the rooftops moving its tail in a serpentine fashion. Then, it stopped. Something had caught its attention. It was them. The flying creature started coming in their direction at a high speed. As it got closer, its appearance became clearer. It a human-like upper body, had a stitched, cloth-like skin in a pale shade of green, two arms with clawed hands and green and red "hair" above a human-like face. It indeed had no feet, the only thing behind the skirt which moved like a swimming jellyfish was the long, pointed tail. "Run!" Vanger shouted. So they began running, while Alice was holding tightly to his hand. Unfortunately, they were not fast enough. In just few seconds the flying Knit reached them, caught Alice and carried her away. "Alice!" Vanger exclaimed nervously. He could hear a distant answer, something along the lines of "Run, Vanger! Save yourself..." So he ran for his life, faster than he ever did before. He arrived at an old alley with a wooden door at the end. There were three letters engraved on the wood: C.K.O. Vanger had no idea of what that was. The only thing he knew was that inside he would be safer, se he opened the door and entered. The inside of the old structure was dark and gloomy, with various paraphernalia thrown around all over the place. Then he noticed he was not alone there. Two men were coming in his direction, one them apparently with an animal on his shoulder. "Greetings." Said one of them. "Who are you?" Vanger asked "What does C.K.O. stand for?" And the man wearing glasses replied "My name is Harold." "And I'm Hektor." Said the man with a scar on his face. Suddenly, the brown monkey like creature on his shoulder bit him. "Ouch! Okay, okay! And this is Grosa." Harold cleaned his throat and continued talking "We are members of Cacti's Knit Organisation. Our purpose is to fight against whoever is behind all these recent Knit attacks and sightings all over the World. We also have our own Knits to help us on this task, like Grosa right here." Grosa waved one of her tiny hands. "So those are Knits?" Vanger asked "I think it was one these who just took my friend away." Hektor took a palm to his face. "Oh, crap. They won't stop capturing random people. Why do they have to this?" Suddenly, Vanger had an idea. "Can you guys help me get Alice back to safety?" "Well..." Grosa replied "if this Alice of yours was truly taken by a Knit, she must be far away right now. Perhaps your best chance to save your friend is to join us against this enemy." Vanger sighed. "There's no time for this! My friend is in danger!" He opened the door and was just about to leave, when Harold said "Yes. Your friend is in danger. However, you are also in danger. We of the C.K.O. are in danger. The whole World is in danger. If you walk out this door, you will have poor chances of saving one person. On the other hand, if you join us, you'll have more chances not only of saving Alice, but also all the other people. Think of it." Harold was right. What could he possibly do in order to save Alice? There really much to do about it. The C.K.O., on the other hand... "Okay," he said "you won. I'll stay." Harold smiled. "Smart boy. Okay then, we were just talking about a new Ypervital geode located in the Aleutian Islands." "What is something 'Yipervital'?" The boy asked. "Ypervita" Hektor replied "is an odd kind of rock which occurs in the form of green geodes. It's what makes Knits alive. It can be used to summon or even to create new Knits, if you have the proper materials to do so. That's why it's so dangerous. We need to get the geodes scattered around the planet before the Knits do it." Vanger was intrigued. "How on Earth will we get to the Aleutian Islands?". Grosa laughed. "By plane!" She said "Duh...". "Okay." Said Harold "Let us go now. The sooner we get into our associate's plane the sooner we get there and catch that geode." It's a long trip from China all the way to the Aleutian Islands. Vanger slept for many hours before they finally arrived in the cold, rocky landscape. "Oh, great..." Said Harold, grumpily "Here we are, in the middle of God-Knows-Where. The geode could very well be somewhere normal, like Germany or something. But no! It had to be in the very tip of the Earth." "Shut up, Harold!" Said Hektor "Look! There are the Knits!" Said Knits were looking for the precious object in a more elevated terrain, which in the past was used by the Unangan natives to fight against Russian colonists. Among them was the one Vanger recognised as Alice's kidnapper. It was apparently the leader of that group, as soon one of the other Knits handed her a bright green geode dug from the ground. "They've found it..." Hektor took a ballistic knife out of his pocket and shot the blade at the back of the Knit's head. It didn't do much damage, but now there enemies were aware of their presence. Thus began the fight. Harold and Hektor unsheathed large cane knives. Grosa jumped at the other Knits' faces. In the middle of the chaos, Vanger walked to the skirt-wearing tailed Knit. "What did you do to her!?" There was no answer. Instead, she simply charged against him with her frightening claws. Vanger managed to dodge the attack and grab his enemy by the tail, pulling it to the ground, stepping on it with his right foot. He was almost able to feel the great fury in the Knit's eyes. At last, the creature escaped Vanger's strong grip. There they were, face-to-face, panting furiously in the middle if the heated combat. The boy looked the Knit straight in eyes, stepping on the geode she'd dropped with his right foot. "Is this what you want?" He asked an obviously rhetorical question "Then go get it!" After completing the phrase and without much thought, Vanger kicked the precious geode with great strength. The object fell into the depths of the gelid sea. "Noooo!" The Knit screamed in panic. Completely forgetting about Vanger and the others, she dived into the cold water, looking for the geode. All the other Knits had either fled or been defeated, except one, who was going to attack Harold. The young man, however, slashed the creature in half with the sharp blade of his cane knife. "That's the last one..." "Where's the geode!?" Grosa asked. Vanger was waiting for that question. "I... Kinda kicked it into the sea? Sorry, guys." The other C.K.O. Members looked at each other for a few seconds. "That was not a very wise thing to do." Harold said "But at least the Knits didn't get it either. Better lost forever than in the hands of our enemies..." They went back into the airplane and took flight. In his seat, Vanger was thinking about all that. "What have I put myself into?" He thought. That could end terribly. On the other hand, he has to save his friend. He was the only one who knew what happened to her. And the thought that the everyone else could be in great peril... That gave his goosebumps. Perhaps together, the C.K.O. would be able to stop that. Or maybe not... The vehicle soon disappeared into the far-western sky of the cold and desolate Aleutian islands... |
|
The Sirens of the Land of Fire Codex Ebervaliorum Spoiler: click to toggle
| |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · Café Cosmique · Next Topic » |








7:52 PM Jul 10