Since the creature had a face, many things were different.

One primary example was the way its intelligence had soared. More precisely, it was the way its intelligence had become accessible. Things it didn’t know about, things it had never seen before ― were being explained one after the other, as the creature dove into its body memory, feeling restless. The creature could remember every detail of lives it hadn’t lived, on different countries, different continents, different worlds, sometimes not even lives lived by the race it was currently mimicking. The memories of those lives were originally stored inside the memory of the main body and when the creature was born, a copy of them had been implemented in its mind to help the creature adapt to its new environment.

It was knowledge it had since the moment it was born, but it didn’t have access to it until the moment it would acknowledge itself as an individual. If its sense of self wasn’t strong enough when loading those memories, they would eventually confuse the creature into insanity. So evolution had made it so that they couldn’t be read until the creature perceived its experience as unique and others’ experiences as outsiders’ perspectives. It had evolved this way after hundreds of failures, creatures kindred to the one born on this world who had lost themselves in lives they weren’t theirs.

It wasn’t the first time the main body was dropping a part of itself somewhere.

It would do that every time it visited a world, and all the creatures it gave birth to shared the same mission : they were witnesses. They were born to see, because the main body’s purpose was to record ― record life in every shape and form, in every place, record life as it paved each time a different path to death. That was the reason why the main body was born, and in every world, there would always be a myth talking about its existence and referring to the main body by its role as an archivist. Some worlds’ religions would name the main body as one of their main deities, and for a good reason.

The main body was the divine memory of this plane.

A being as old as the plane itself, and a creature that was born from it could know everything it knew ― if only it wanted to.

But this one creature, sitting there on a bench in Oqaton, didn’t want to. It really didn’t.

There was no point in knowing more than the basics, it thought, when it had all the time in the world to discover the rest by itself. Why jump ahead and take the risk of having everything it met for the first time feel repetitive ? If everything had already been lived before, then why did the main body keep sending little spies to different worlds ? Wouldn’t it know better than anyone when to stop ?

So, surely, there was more to life than plain mimicry.

At least that was the creature's thought.

**

The place Tiffany brought the creature to was a restaurant that only served pasta and it was mainly fancied by workers during their lunch break. Here, they would cook right in front of you. Tiffany liked that place because she knew one of the cooks ― a kind, kind man she called Pepe because she didn't know his true name. Pepe would hide his name tag in his pocket just because he didn't want her to find out, and when she asked him his real name, again and again, he would always say a different one. Pepe was a good liar but still a good man. When he didn't see her one day and she had made the promise to come, he'd text her. Pepe's messages were gibberish as he barely knew how to write, but it was easy to read in his texts his care and worry.

In the middle of that huge city, Tiffany found peace in knowing Pepe would notice if she disappeared.

Well, if she disappeared, it would kinda be her fault though. If she didn't have the hobby of meddling with other people’s business, she wouldn't have to make Pepe worry so much and she could live peacefully. But Tiffany liked her fun. And Pepe knew that too.

That's why he wasn't too surprised when she brought the creature to meet him.

"I brought a friend today." Tiffany said as she leaned against the kitchen counter. She turned to the creature, who was looking at the man's casserole more than his face. "Come on, say hello."

The creature didn't listen to Tiffany's words. It was focused on the smells emanating from the kitchen, as it discovered real hunger for the first time. It was a different appetite from the one it felt when meeting people or new things, and it was something it hadn't felt while eating that protein bar. The creature was a bit weirded out by it, actually. It hadn't thought about it before, but since something was coming inside its body, it would eventually come out of it. It mobilized all of its knowledge of human anatomy in a split second to answer that ‘mystery’ and ended up grossed out.

It was thankful that its current body, despite having a human appearance, was completely devoid of organs.

Tiffany saw that the creature wouldn't answer and gave up on forcing the greeting. She turned back to Pepe.

"Make it two carbonaras, one of us is poor."

Pepe glanced at the creature with a frown but took the order nonetheless. He always had a frown when dealing with Tiffany, or things related to her, because she always did things he thought were stupid ― and he'd tell her. She just never listened.

"Are you sure about your new friend ?" He said while studying the creature from the corner of his eyes.

"She's okay." Tiffany simply said as she looked at the creature's side profile.

The creature finally noticed her gaze and raised her eyes. They stared at each other silently before Tiffany broke the silence.

"You know where to sleep tonight ?"

The creature didn't understand the question. Tiffany explained :

"After this meal, you're out of money. Where do you intend to go ?"

The creature still didn't get it.

"I'll sleep somewhere."

"You can't just go and sleep anywhere, you're going to get raped."

The creature blinked.

"Then what ?" It asked, and Pepe changed his opinion about it in his mind.

That pale looking woman was odd, but she probably had her own share of problems. It was bad to ignore someone in need. Pepe cooked in silence for a while.

"There's an empty apartment next door to mine. You could squat there."

This idea angered Pepe who suddenly said :

"No squatting. She can come to a friend's place."

It was Tiffany's turn to disapprove.

"You can't impose her on your friend."

Pepe clarified :

"He has a hotel. Sometimes he does the rooms for free."

Tiffany weighed down that option. The creature weighed down nothing as it let the both of them decide its fate. Pepe's cooking skills were nice and the pasta looked great.

Tiffany couldn't help but be a little careful.

"You're sure about that, Pepe ? You really know that guy ?"

Then Pepe got even madder.

"He's a regular like you ! You're my friend, he's my friend ! Stop asking !"

Tiffany leaned back a bit, scared away by Pepe's awful face. But well, she got it. Pepe got really emotional when it came to people, because he treasured them. Insulting someone he liked was like insulting his own mother. If you didn't want your pasta to be burnt, you didn't do that.

Still, she didn't necessarily like the idea that much. Pepe was kind but he wasn't always a good judge of character, because he always wanted to see the good in people. That's what she liked about him, but that's also something she despised. She thought to herself : every person smiling at you ain't a friend, Pepe, and people don't do rooms for free.

Except if that meant you paid the price another way.

She looked at the creature salivating and wondered if it could defend itself in the worst case scenario. She still wanted to believe in Pepe's friend, because she believed in Pepe, but she had to think about the worst outcome. She was trying to make a friend here, it wasn't going to work if the other died on her less than 24 hours after meeting.

Because she was looking at it, the creature looked back at her.

Those eyes were nice, Tiffany absentmindedly thought, but what if they were weaker than they looked like ?

But then the creature actually smiled.

A very close mimic to Tiffany's usual careless grin, and she got the chills.

"I'll take the room." The tone of the creature was easy as it answered her doubts.

Pepe was satisfied with that answer. He nodded and added :

"I'll call him, he won't say no."

Tiffany got out of her slight terror. Fuck, this thing was scary. Its adaptability was not to be underestimated. It wasn't that long since they had met but it had already learnt to tone down the intensity of its emotions to let out the bare minimum needed for social interaction, and now it was learning facial expressions.

There was no doubt to her that in less than a week, the creature would be indistinguishable from a random human, except it would be potentially far more dangerous. Tiffany didn't really know why the creature was mixing with people and trying to integrate society so badly. She couldn't fathom the objective behind it, but her instinct told her it wasn't that big of a deal. What was a big deal was the way the creature's existence could impact the social picture of the capital. Tiffany had a vision ― one of social disharmony. She really wanted to mess some things up. But it was less of a 6th sense thing than a selfish wish of hers.

There was a theory like that, wasn't it ? People in power fought to preserve their position by praising the system that made them kings; and people that craved power wanted the system to fall apart to rise as phoenixes under a new one. Then they would protect the new system like old kings had protected theirs, and the cycle would continue.

Well, Tiffany wanted power. She didn’t just want to live, she wanted the life. So she was really hoping for something to come along and destroy everything in place. Tiffany didn't really care about fame or money, but she was in love with the thrill ― and rumors said that powerful people knew a lot of different thrills.

But anyway, there was no way to predict what the creature would do.

At least, she could try to stay close to it and enjoy the feeling of flirting with danger.

A few minutes later, Pepe was done cooking and they said goodbye to him before taking their plates to sit down at a table. The creature took one look at the way people were eating and mimicked it. Tiffany ate while looking at her phone.

She was looking at an online shopping cart. She didn't have enough money to buy any of the things she had put on, but she still liked to pick up items and save them. Very much like she liked picking people up and storing their numbers away. Somehow, it always turned out to be helpful.

Tiffany thought there was nothing more powerful than a favor in this world.

She took a look at the creature eating, and smiled to herself.

And now, she had another debt to add to the list. And Pete too, she added in her mind, feeling smug. It was nice that Pepe did too. If the creature respected Pepe, there was less chance of it hurting him ― and it was always important to protect your loved ones.

After their meal, the two separated as Tiffany needed to go back to work. She made the creature promise to come back to the shop in the evening, so they could go check the hotel together if Pete’s friend was okay with the creature staying one night.

The creature agreed and went on its way. Since it had the whole afternoon to itself, and it had just eaten, it went back to the local park where it had spent the time the very morning, waiting to eat lunch with Tiffany, and found a remote place to sleep. Hidden from the rest of the crowd, well, as hidden as it could be behind a few bushes, it laid down on the grass and closed its eyes.

Under the bright sun, the creature fell asleep almost immediately; and not long after, its body under the clothes slowly started to change, reconstructing itself into what the primary state of its body should look like according to the creature’s innate nature, metamorphosing itself into its own shape.