10

Size: 1

Core: 1

Carnivorous

Increase

See, I’m not sure what that’s about. I really don’t! One moment I was hanging around my apartment, trying to make a box of tagliatelle last one more day so I could get to my next paycheck, and then boom! Here I am.

Wherever here is. As a matter of fact, I’m not much sure about that either! Everything is very black, which could either be because I’m in a box (kidnapped?) or because I’ve lost my eyes. I’d personally be leaning towards the former since my eyes don’t really hurt, but, then again, if I’d lost my eyes, they couldn’t hurt, now could they? Of course not, that’d be silly!

But I’m not in a box either. See, I can fully move. Or, um, sort of. I am somewhere, I can feel that, but I can’t move anything.

Can’t move my limbs, can’t move my eyes, can’t move my tongue… A pretty curious situation, I’d say! I’d think I’m dead if I couldn’t feel anything at all, but I can.

There’re rocks beneath me. I can’t feel any wind, but it’s a little chilly. I wish I’d have a hand, or an arm, or just a-,

Grow tentacle? Cost: 1 (you have 10)

Why, hello there, strange box. We meet again, don’t we? Another reason I don’t think I’m dead. The last time this thing popped up I kind of discarded it, but now that I’m looking at it again, I really think that saying “yes” might be the proper answer. Maybe it’s a waste of whatever it is I’m using to do this, maybe it’s short-sighted, but I don’t care! Me want tentacle!

10 -> 9

It sprouted from my side. Despite the fact that I’ve never been an octopus before, I could control it pretty much perfectly. Huh. My opinion of myself was correct, I am lying on some sort of rock.

As to what I am… I feel a bit slick. Kind of round. Yup, now that I’ve felt myself a bunch (and felt myself getting felt by a tentacle - feels very strange) I can surmise accurately that I am, like, some sort of fleshy ball. Imagine the head of an octopus without any other features. Ah, apart from my one tentacle, that is! Using it, I’ve been able to also ensure that I am not connected to the ground, which is a good thing because I don’t want to be a mushroom. Not that I’d rather be an octopus, but, y’know, tomato-tomato.

...Hm. I wonder if I could-,

Aha, I can!

By abusing the power of my one and only tentacle, I can not only inch my body this-way or that-way, I can also balance on the tentacle! I may not be able to see it myself, but I’m pretty sure these sick flips I’m doing must look really cool.

...An eye. Vision. I wonder if I could grow one of those like I grew the tentacle?

Grow eye? Cost: 3 (you have 9)

-Expensive! But also worth it. So, yes, please do!

9 -> 6

I open my eye. I am met with an endless expanse of stars and nebulas and bright glimmering lights all intermingling in an equally infinite blackness, the starry night-sky greeting me like an old friend. Aha. An image of where I must be formed pretty quickly. I must be some sort of one-armed octopus freak (however that works) lying on my back on a rock in a field, staring at the night sky. Righty-o. That makes sense, so, let’s waste no time getting off of this ro-,

Turning my eye elsewhere, I’m forced to realize that the night sky isn’t only above me. It is at my sides and under my head and behind me. I am not standing on the stable Earth, I am standing on some sort of asteroid, floating aimlessly, surrounded by a million billion other asteroids. Some are small like rocks, others are big like trucks and yet another few are absolutely humongous, so large they seem more like moons in the distance than actual asteroids. The only reason I can assume that these are not small is that they no longer have some general rock-like shape, but are instead almost completely round.

If I’d had a mouth, this is the moment when it would drop in fearsome awe.

Um. Uh. Okay, right, uh. I’m not on Earth, then?

Looking at my vaguely purple-ish blue-dotted tentacle, I’m not human either. Looking at those two suns in the very distance, orbiting closely, one red and swollen and the other small and white, I’m not even in the solar system. Something very strange has happened here.

Something very strange indeed.

-However, that doesn’t change the fact that I’m a one-tentacled octopus riding atop an asteroid, something I honestly can’t consider as a good thing!

The only good thing about this situation is that I’m not in any immediate dange-,

A giant eye floats past. It is connected to a massive, fleshy expanse of dark blue, small freckle-like dots flickering and pulsing. A mouth seems to open and close. Sucking in asteroids and debris alike.

I clench the astroid I sit on closely, watching as that massive behemoth slides by. Uncaring. Unthinking.

...Okay. Um.

In other words, I’m not very safe and being a one-armed octopus probably won’t help. But! This does confirm the existence of extraterrestrial life! Hold on, do I count as extraterrestrial life?... I’m not on Earth, and I’m life, so… Anyhoo! This isn’t really helping me. At all.

Hrm. Maybe I should return to that first screen? It might help.

6

Size: 1

Core: 1

Tentacles: 1

Eyes: 1

Carnivorous

Increase

Oho! Now it’s got a tentacle- and eye-counter. That is… It feels ominous, somehow. Anyhoo, other than that, this really isn’t telling me much of anything, apart from that I could probably make more tentacles. Maybe that’s what I should do? Maybe that’ll-,

Nibble.

What-, who-,

I’m not alone. Whatever this is, it’s small, and it’s sinking its teeth into my body. It doesn’t hurt so much as it’s annoying, but I feel kind of concerned? Like-, it’s just there. What even is this? It looks like a big insect, about a fifth of my own size. And that’s about it.

Nibble.

Hey, cut that out! If you don’t, I’ll-,

Nibble nibble.

Okay. That’s it.

I wrap my only tentacle around the insect, and although it struggles, it cannot escape my grasp. Its little legs and feet stab into my tentacle, but it doesn’t hurt much. And now, I… I what? This really feels like the kind of situation where violence is not only advised but also necessary, but even if I did squish this here insect, what would I do with it? It ate me!

Am I supposed to… To eat it back?

It’s an insect. I’ve eaten worse stuff. But I haven’t got a mouth to eat with?

Grow mouth? Cost: 5 (you have 6)

Aha. My convenient friend, you are very correct! Do it. Evolve that thing.

6 -> 1

It’s like gasping for air after being underwater for almost a minute. Except I don’t breathe in any air, I just sort of open my mouth. Sadly, my eye is situated at a pretty bad angle, so I can’t really see exactly what my mouth looks like, just that it has a whole lot of very sharp teeth in it. On a second note, I also haven’t got a tongue. That might not be a good thing, but right now, I really don’t care!

Time for bug! Bottom’s up!

I shove the squirming thing into my mouth and-, man! It’s crunchy! I have no other opinion because I literally can’t taste it. Like, at all. 3/10 only because of the crunchiness. Maybe I should buy a tongue? Just to taste something? Though, on the other hand, I only have a single point, so-,

1 -> 6

Oho! Well well well! In other words, if I eat, I can get points, and if I have points, that means I can grow more tentacles?

…

I’ll take the eternal silence of space as a yes!