THE THING! Stalked the lower tunnels of some giant insect nest after escaping its centuries-long prison. When the huge ants saw THE THING! Their body shifted into a huge ant queen writhing with a hundred antenna and giving off a hundred conflicting sets of orders. The ants all ran within moments and they would then shift back into an insubstantial mass when no longer being observed. It was a frustrating process, The Thing never had time to more than flail about in a new form before they lost it again. They had never stayed in a form long enough for it to feel like their own. The Thing could manifest a limb or claw they remembered well or a random set of eyes and tentacles, they were really good at eyes and tentacles, they filled in the empty space in many of the forms that they shifted into. Even their scary clown form, a common fear for some reason, usually had 4-10 extra eyes and at least one tentacle.

The Thing saw creatures check a status menu, but they seemed to be excluded from this system. Much like how they were shoved in a box deep underground so no one would ever have to look at their greatest fears, only improved by extra shadowy tentacles, hungry eyes and a slavering maw or 2. They had tried smiling, waving, eating people, nothing ever seemed to help him make friends. Most people seemed to find it hard to befriend an eldritch horror version of one's greatest fear.

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Jr Omega skipped along the tunnels, she was a brand new girl, her mommy said she was a new clone of mommy. “You can have the childhood your Mommy was robbed of.” her Mommies voice told her in her mind earlier. She couldn't hear mommy now, mommy was fighting the bad dead men. She had cut herself off from her daughter/clone while Jr O was on her first secret mission.

Jr Omega was thrilled to be on an important secret mission, so important Mommy said she would make herself forget the details. Jr was a little sad mommy forgot, but she also said she would know why she had done all this when Jr O finished her mission.

A long time ago; some bad men imprisoned Mommy and Mommy’s little magic helpers. But the bad men also Imprisoned the third creature. This third person or creature was all alone, sad and angry. Mommy said that they may not have slept through their imprisonment like Mommy got to. Jr was not afraid of the person being some monster, Mommy befriended the good monsters and ate the bad ones.

No Jr was afraid that the creature would just be a lost lonely puppy with no one to love it. She clenched her fist in determination and put in her earbuds, putting on a song from auntie Holly’s store.

She sang to herself as she skipped down the tunnel:

“Monster, monster under my bed

Come out and play 'cause I need a friend”

She was determined to love that puppy no matter what.

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THE THING! Could feel the vibrations of something approaching, the Vibrations were coming from down the tunnel, the creatures odd gait made it hard to decern with vibrational senses alone, but it was much smaller then the ants had been, so it could hardly be a threat.

They floated along the floor into the center of their cavern in anticipation of being spotted and transformed into some giant horror.

THE THING only had a moment to see the little girl before she spotted them. She had black hair, in two short pigtails, dark skin, slight folds in her eyes that were a rare trait among the humans The thing had seen, all of the humans they had seen were pale in complexion and rarely had hair so dark, nor did they ever let them see their children, not that they blamed them. Who would want their own child to see some traumatic things that broke most adults to view it?

Why was this child in a place so deep and dark. The thing was almost offended by the irresponsibility of it all. They began to boil with rage, but the girl's song stopped their building rage

“We're now compatible

My inner animal

I wanted blood and got a taste”

She sang and the rest of the lyrics of the verse were lost on THE THING as they were stung by the cheerful girl singing about letting the beast within out.

She sang the chorus in three different voices, the first like the angelic child she appeared to be, the second voice like it was stolen from a demon lord, and the last and most terrible was a fusion of the two, a demonic child's Lyric that would make any Human piss himself in terror.

“Now the beast has come to play

Now the beast has come to play

Now the beast has come to play”

THE THING let out an involuntary whine like a sad puppy. Then froze, looking up at the now giant looking little girl as she removed devices from her ear and fiddled with and disabled the faint music coming from them.

“Oh don't be frightened little puppy, Mommy sent me to save you from being alone in the dark”

The girl crouched and let the puppy thing sniff her hand. The thing had no idea why they were acting this way, maybe an instinct built into it’s new form. Almost against their will, the thing sniffed the hand with their main snout and a pair of tentacles with scent-based sensory organs on them.

The girl giggled like the things tentacles had tickled.

“See little puppy, I mean you no harm.” the girl reassured the monster.

The Monster, on the other hand, had no idea why it was a puppy, sure it still had the extra eyes and teeth and tentacles one would expect, but attached to a puppy their ability to menace people was significantly decreased. Also being comforted was a strange new experience. Who tries to comfort their fears?

“Mommy was in the same prison pits as you,” the girl said in a sad voice. “She said you were the last one put in a pit, but that you might not have slept through it like mommy and her magic dust did.”

The thing cocked its head to the side in thought. There had been 2 other pits when it escaped, but an ant had seen it escape so it was in giant insane queen form for most of the escape from the basement. How could someone have escaped, then had a child, in less than a day since it’s own escape? Did it matter? Here was a being not afraid of it seeking companionship. Could it afford to let her go?

“If I look away for a second you stop being a puppy, then it takes a second for you to become solid and small again,” she said like she was puzzling him out. “Is that right?” she asked

The thing had no idea what to do, so it just nodded.

“If someone else looks at you, do you turn into something else?”

It nodded again.

“Do you like that?”

It shook it’s head no

“Would you like me to help you be a puppy whenever you want?”

It was floored, she was offering it a real base form, A true physical presence. It would do anything to feel real. So it nodded again fervently.

Then the girl reached up, and plucked out one of her own eyes, she grimaced, but the pain did not seem to affect her much and there was no blood, she had pulled out the Lid and nerves behind the eye as well, for a moment the thing could see her brain exposed, before new flesh seemed to flow into the gap, in the place of a torrent of blood, she just grew a new eye, this one bright blue now instead of the hazel of her original eyes.

The thing was a little horrified, she had plucked out her whole eye with a fricking smile on her face. Then she closed all three eyes and the thing went back to their smokey black form, then her hand darted into the center of The Things mass and deposited the eye. Once her hand was removed she opened the detached eye only, and suddenly the thing was a puppy again with a foreign object in their center of mass.

Then things got really weird, a cloud of dust floated off the girl and settled on the things skin, creating a transparent layer evenly coating the creature. The girl's eyes were still closed, trusting that her mad plan would work. So The thing did not think the dust was her intentional doing.

Congratulations! Eldritch horror, THE THING!. You have acquired the “Eye of innocence” granting you the power feat “Eldritch Puppy, toggleable” attached to your rank B power “Eldritch form of Fear”.

Congratulations! Eldritch horror, THE THING!. You have acquired the “Sense Dampining Membrane” granting you the following power alterations: the uncontrolled(Always) Flaw of “Eldritch form of Fear” has been changed to Uncontrolled(True sense).

Not only did it gain a solid form that it could turn on or off at will, but it could also stop the wandering eyes of others from turning the thing into a hundred horrors a day. Unless people used true sight, then they deserved what they saw.

The thing began to cry, it's extra eyes on their sides and sniffling tentacles made it far messier than when normal fleshy creatures cried. Oh darkness, they were a messy crier.

The girl, misunderstanding the crying, dropped to her knees and threw her arms around the damp puppy monster. “Don't worry little puppy, I won’t leave, I won’t ever let you be lonely again.”

Congratulations! Eldritch horror, THE THING! System entity “Junior Omega”, age: 2 hours, wishes to make you her Guardian Beast. This is a special Role only for Ancient stationary guardians, and monsters who are willing to devote their lives to the protection of a child.

Do you accept being Junior Omega’s Guardian Beast? Yes/no

The Thing slammed the yes button the moment it appeared. It would do anything for this newborn child that gave it freedom and asked for nothing in return. The sentiment crystallized in the heart of the thing, hardening the beasts resolve into an indestructible core of Iron will.

“'THE THING!' Is way too intense of a name for such a cute puppy. How about Mr. Thing? It is much cuter.”

“Mr. Thing is a fine name, little miss” he spoke into her mind. It seemed that this guardian beast gig came with a telepathic bond.

The girl squealed with delight “Mr. Thing can talk now”

New System Entity Designation: Eldritch Guardian, Mr. Thing

Mr. Thing was happier then he had ever been, and he would happily snack on the souls of anyone who so much as looked at his little girl the wrong way.

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Many historians hundreds of years from now would argue which Child/Monster pair shook the fabric of the world more; The Aetherial Tr-Ogre princess and her ex-Angel servant or the Monster Queen's daughter and her Nightmare Hound.