#udon the bog slug

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

Hide and Seek

Wherein Eris and the Drifter discuss the logistics of a private Gambit match.

Link to Ao3 if you prefer to read it there

ACCESS: RESTRICTED DECRYPTION KEY: 1LPGY6V382$IKO-006 REP#: 090-ATHENAEUM-DERELICT-MESSAGING AGENT(S): AUN-326 SUBJ: VIP#1316 AND ERI-223 INTERACTIONS - HIDE AND SEEK - VOICE MESSAGE EXCHANGE

[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]

[VOICE MESSAGE 88-50-62.93-74-77] Germaine. You are undoubtedly running your rat race as I send this to you. I have no information of value to impart beyond that I know finding this message will bring you joy. And that is, in and of itself, good enough reason to leave it for you. The bog slugs have become even more brave around me now. They do not retreat even when I reach out a hand to touch them. I succeeded at petting one today and it trilled at me. I thought of you and how this would delight you. And so the desire to send you this message was incepted. I wonder if they can survive outside of the throne world. Perhaps you might try to keep one on your ship as a pet. I can imagine it flowing with its many pointed legs, rippling through your corridors, up the walls, in the ceiling, skittering amongst your tools and equipment. I imagine you would try to teach it tricks. Would it ‘roll over’ in a long spiral of segments and legs for some random bit of food for you? I still have no idea what they eat, however I'm sure you would find something amenable to its palate. It is one of your many skills.

[VOICE MESSAGE 89-51-63.93-74-77] Moondust! One of those bog worm things let you touch it? You have to name it now. You realize that don't ya? Damn thing needs a name. How about Spaghetti? Or Udon? Also, Derelict would be a terrible place for the guy. They clearly need to burrow in dirt. But you know where there is a lotta stuff to burrow in? The moon. Times between these matches is way too short. I gotta go. Catch ya later!

[VOICE MESSAGE 89-51-63.94-75-78] Absolutely not.

[VOICE MESSAGE 90-52-64.94-75-78] To the name or the moon? Last match one of the guardians kept hiding from the invader, as one does, and then when they got close, whirly-blended them with a sword. Same invader fell for the same trick three times! Embarrassing! Hilarious to watch though. Got me thinking. We’re both pretty sneaky. So just picture this: Private match. You and I. No hostiles. No motes. Hide and seek. Not now, of course, but later. You on for that? Could be a hell of a lot of fun.

[VOICE MESSAGE 90-52-64.95-76-79] You know your maps better than I. You would have a significant advantage. An indoor map with no lighting would bring balance to scales otherwise weighted heavily in your favour. But what shall I win when I catch you? Will you bestow upon me one of your infamous guns? Shall I wander about the tower with Malfeasance upon my hip? How many eyebrows would that raise, I wonder.

[VOICE MESSAGE 91-53-65.95-76-79] Everyone and their grandma has a Malf now. No one would notice or care if you had it too. It’s a good gun. You’ll like it. And you’re right, you should have one. All you gotta do is take it from me. I’m sure you could do that if you wanted, right? So come and get it, hunter. You don’t want that for hide and seek, though. You can have that any time. And what would I get if I win at hunting you down in the dark? Maybe we should just let the winner pick whatever they want. That is, of course, unless those stakes are too high for you.

[VOICE MESSAGE 91-53-65.96-77-80] No. You are not going to trick me into wagering an Ahamkara bone on a game of hide and seek, Rat. Furthermore, I fully expect you to cheat and I should get something additional when I catch you at it.

[VOICE MESSAGE 92-54-66.96-77-80] Me? Cheat at Gambit? You have insulted my pride, Three-Eyes. How could you say such a thing? No way you’d catch me cheating at my own game. Because you wouldn’t catch me. Bonus challenge accepted. Now, what are we wagering that ain’t your glow ball? What do I get that’d make you eager enough not to lose?

[VOICE MESSAGE 92-54-66.97-78-81] I do not have anything of value to offer you that I would be willing to wager on a game. Perhaps this is not as much fun as you had hoped after all. Let us leave this by the wayside until such time as a reasonable wager presents itself.

[VOICE MESSAGE 93-55-67.97-78-81] Oh now don’t you go giving up that easily. I have an idea. One thing you have in spades is pride. If I win, you have to tell ol’ Rayray you lost to me at hide and seek. And I get to see both your faces when you do.

[VOICE MESSAGE 93-55-67.98-79-82] You insufferable... wretch! Ikora is a leader of the Vanguard and a close and trusted friend, someone I deeply respect, not a pawn to be used in your ridiculous attempts at seduction.

[VOICE MESSAGE 94-56-68.98-79-82] Attempts? I ain’t attempting nothing. That’s quite the reaction from someone who was oh so convinced they’d win. Sounds to me like you’re flat out admitting you know I’m better at skulking about in the dark than you. I suppose I can accept that if you really are conceding defeat before we even start. It’s disappointing, but flattering.

[VOICE MESSAGE 94-56-68.99-80-83] I can smell you in the dark, Rat. Your thoughts are loud and lewd and you make no attempt to quiet them. There is no way you could possibly win.

[VOICE MESSAGE 95-57-69.99-80-83] Game on, then?

[VOICE MESSAGE 95-57-69.00-81-84] Game on.

[VOICE MESSAGE 96-58-70.00-81-84] Oh hey, give Udon an extra scritch on the head for me, will ya? I bet they eat swamp bugs. Maybe those little shrimpy things I made into a soup for you that one time. You should come over for dinner again sometime soon. I’m done at eight tonight if you’re free.

[VOICE MESSAGE 96-58-70.01-82-85] It is not named Udon, or anything else for that matter, and I am not free. I did scratch its head for you, though, and I tried to offer it a bug, but it showed no interest. I miss your company, you infuriating creature. I will take you up on your offer of dinner in that heap you call a ship when this is over.

[END TRANSCRIPT]

This is one of a series of stories written during Season of the Witch that I called Kept Conficence, after the hand cannon with the lore that helped to inspire them.

Here is a link to all of them in order if you wish.

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

Destinytober24: Day 21 - Ensnare

Further adventures in bog slug ownership.

Link to Ao3 if you prefer to read it there

Eris Morn frowned as she stepped into the Gambit ready room on the Derelict.

It was quiet. The Derelict was never quiet. It was also dark.

She scanned her surroundings, her stolen Hive eyes giving her an advantage in the dark few other humans had, although they also could just as easily give away her position.

The floor was littered with small items. Shell casings. Eris picked one up and examined it. Unspent. A nearby ammunition crate lay on its side.

The Drifter's ship was cluttered with an excess of items ranging from the practical to the bizarre. And he frequently left them in heaps positioned in ways Eris found highly chaotic and ill-kept. But he always kept the Gambit ready room clear. And it was unlike him to have ammunition rolling about on the floor. He would have responded to such a mishap with a groan and taken immediate action to rectify the situation. For such a mess to be left in-place, he would have either not known about it, or been otherwise occupied.

The Drifter's ghost was also not present. Another unusual occurrence, albeit only for Eris. Normally the little light would have found her by now to guide her to its chosen. The Drifter did not like for anyone to see his ghost, but Eris was a unique exception and his ghost was inordinately fond of her. Its absence, combined with the silence from the ship's engines and the loose ammunition scattered around the floor filled Eris with concern.

She approached the exit with caution. The doors into and out of the Gambit ready room remained perpetually closed and locked at all times. All doors within the Drifter's ship were keyed to his biometrics, the particular light resonance pattern of his ghost, and, more recently, the biometric data of Eris Morn as well.

The door did not slide open at her approach, but it did unlock. Emergency power was functional, at least.

The well-oiled hinges made no sound and Eris stepped through the doorway into a completely unlit hall. The light from her orb and her eyes bathed everything in a sickly green glow. She paused at an intersection and looked into the rooms on either side.

The storage room on her right looked ransacked. Many items normally stacked on the shelving along three of the room's four walls had toppled down in heaps. A sack of flour had fallen and split, spilling white powder in a large spray across the metal floor. Long, snake-like trails through the flour led out of the room across the hall to the Drifter's garden. They reminded Eris of the tendrils from a Taken Primeval, the one the Drifter called "the Meatball."

But it was the inside of the garden through the other door which caused Eris' Ahamkara bone to frost over. She drew her hand cannon. Several of the plant frames had been smashed. A stray cucumber had rolled along the floor. A strawberry plant was trampled, its fruit leaving sticky red splotches among crushed leaves.

This was not a situation where an explosion from his workshop or the Drifter's sometimes questionable piloting decisions were at fault. Eris was looking upon signs of a struggle.

Cautious, ready to defend herself, Eris stalked silently down the hallway and into the Galley at the centre of the ship. Several pots and pans were on the ground. A plate had been smashed. Cupboard doors hung open as though something or someone had grasped them in a frantic search. The Drifter's metal coffee pot lay on its side, its dark liquid looking like blood in the light from her eyes .

As she slunk through the Galley, Eris heard the clang of metal on metal up ahead of her and the sound of something falling. Someone was moving nearby. Possibly even in the next room. The three-eyed former god of Vengeance pressed herself against the wall next to the door leading out into the rest of the ship, her weapons ready. The sound came again. Closer.

She waited.

The Drifter's ghost emitted its single tone in a long beep as it flew past her along the middle of the hallway at waist height. Behind it Eris heard a frantic scrambling, as though something were chasing it.

Eris stepped out into the doorway with a snarl, her frozen sphere hovering ready in one hand, her finger on the trigger of Loud Lullaby in the other, ready to defend the Drifter's ghost with extreme violence.

A very long, brown, many-legged blur flowed around a corner, up one wall, and along the ceiling over her head, chasing after the drone.

Eris lowered her weapon and turned to watch as the Bog Slug's considerable length flowed past her in pursuit of the Drifter's ghost. She watched it coil itself on top of the Drifter's kitchen table and spring across to the other side of the Galley, its many legs quivering in the air as it soared at shoulder height to pounce upon the Drifter's ghost as it hovered, blinking and twitching on the other side of the room.

The Bog Slug caught the misshapen drone in its jaws and landed with a clatter among the pots and pans scattered on the floor, twisting in on itself until it was a messy knot of worm segments and legs.

"Udon!" Eris called out sharply.

The writhing worm-knot became still. Slowly, the single eye of the Bog Slug rose from the coils of its body, gently holding the Drifter's twitching ghost ensnared within its mandibles.

"What are you doing?" Eris asked it.

It stopped moving again, its three-horned head at waist height. Watching her. It remained completely still for another moment, staring, before opening its pincers to release the ghost. The ghost, in turn, fell a few inches in the air and then levitated itself next to the Bog Slug's head.

Both the enormous many-legged worm and the ghost managed to look contrite and ashamed, despite neither one having much in the way of facial features to do so.

Eris' eyes narrowed as she looked around. "Is all this destruction… caused by the two of you?"

The poorly welded lopsided shell of the Drifter's ghost visibly drooped. It emitted its tone again, almost solemnly while blinking from red to blue to red again, turning its single electronic eye away from Eris slightly, as though it were unable to look her in all three of her eyes.

The Bog Slug also was unable to make eye contact. It trembled, unused to hearing reproach in Eris' voice. It drooped and slunk back down to the floor before skittering across the Galley toward Eris. As it reached her feet it began coiling itself around her legs, climbing her in a spiral of segments and chitin.

"No. Down," she commanded.

The Bog Slug pulled away from her and scurried into a dark corner of the Galley where it gave a contrite and mournful trill.

Eris turned back to the ghost. "Where is he?" she demanded.

Eris followed the Drifter's remorseful ghost into the Engine room where the Drifter was on his back with the front half of him partially inside of a maintenance hatch.

The ghost emitted its single tone as they approached.

"I told you to keep him busy while I'm workin'. The fuck you doing back here again?" he said, his voice echoing against the metal walls around him, making him sound simultaneously both louder and farther away.

"He was bringing me," Eris intoned.

"What? Eris?" There was a loud clang and the sound of something heavy falling. "Fuck!"

The Drifter slid on his back out from the hatch and looked up at her, blinking. His head was tilted to the side where he had a flashlight pinned between his ear and his shoulder. There was something black and oily on his face and in his beard. His shirt was torn and partially burnt. Wrenches of several sizes lay across his chest.

"What you doin' here, Moondust? I thought you were gone for a week."

"I was," she intoned.

"You get back early?"

"No."

"No?" he looked up at her, confused.

"No," she said, firmly.

He blinked. "What day is it?" He began gathering his tools off of himself.

"It is Wednesday."

"Wednesday? Shit. I was supposed to meet ya on the Moon."

"You were."

"I'm sorry. I've been fightin' this thing so long I lost track of time."

"Clearly." The frost left her orb and Eris heaved a deep sigh.

He looked over as the lingering Stasis crystals made small crackling noises as they dissipated from the sphere.

"You fighting something?"

"I thought I might have to. Your ship looks like a combat zone."

"Ha! Wait… more than usual?"

"Yes."

"What?"

The Drifter's ghost emitted its tone again. Somehow, despite having only one sound it could make, it managed to sound contrite.

"The fuck did you do?" he pointed at the drone with a crescent wrench. "I told you to watch him!"

"I believe they have been… playing tag… or perhaps fetch… It was difficult to determine."

"Really?"

"Yes," Eris crouched down near him and took the flashlight from where he had it pinned against his neck. "Vigorously."

The Drifter's grin widened. "That's… awesome! That's real cute."

"You may find it less 'awesome' when you witness the state of your garden."

"My garden!"

The Drifter's ghost looked away from both of them and emitted its tone again.

"Ok well… that's sub-optimal."

"Indeed. Hopefully you did not have any grand plans for your strawberries."

"Seriously? They were just gettin' ripe!"

Eris helped him to his feet and they ventured out into the ship together to survey the consequences of unrestrained playtime.

Link to the entire month's worth of prompts on Ao3, posted daily.

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

Udon, the bog slug

I loved the shit out of Season of the Witch. Eris, the writing, the aesthetics, Eris, the gameplay, Kept Confidence, the writing, Eris, and also Eris...

One of the many tiny details that I loved intensely was the one bog slug in the Athenaeum that didn't hide when you approached it.

Swamp worms/slugs/creatures exist elsewhere in Savathun's Throne World and have been there since Witch Queen, but Season of the Witch was the first time we got a close up look of one of them because they always slip down into the ground when a player approaches them... except for this one.

It, therefore, had to appear in my fanfiction. How could I not include something so monstrous and yet also shy and intensely adorable?

I am not the only one who finds the bog slug adorable. The most recent story including it (Spooked) was written as a gift for @flowers-of-io

If you wish to read more about Udon, I have created this short list for you of all my stories (to date) where he makes a significant appearance:

Offering https://archiveofourown.org/works/50277178 The bog slug makes its first appearance

Moonrat Radio: Hide and Seek https://archiveofourown.org/works/50390998 Udon receives his name

Mottephobia (unfinished due to my war with @redbutterflies-blueeyes - do consider reading and commenting to encourage them to write the next section of Inspiral as I am looking forward to it with great delight.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/53036983/chapters/134181106 Udon comforts Eris

Relocation https://archiveofourown.org/works/56376013 Udon's adoption is finalized

Spooked https://archiveofourown.org/works/58203052/chapters/148622527 Eris and the Drifter's further adventures in bog slug ownership

That is all.

UPDATE:

Ensnare, from Destinytober 2024 contains further adventures in bog slug ownership. https://archiveofourown.org/works/59365411/chapters/152954929

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

Udon

A short conversation regarding dinner, set during Season of the Witch. [Note: does not contain bog slug.]

Link to Ao3 if you prefer to read it there

ACCESS: RESTRICTED DECRYPTION KEY: QCK976XM42G$IKO-006 REP#: 069-ATHENAEUM-DERELICT-AUDIO AGENT(S): AUN-326 SUBJ: VIP#1316 AND ERI-223 INTERACTIONS - UDON

RECORDING 79459.2 [BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]

“Hey, Moondust!”

“Yes?”

“I'm bringing you dinner tonight. Whatcha want?”

“You do not need to…”

“You're right, I don't need to, but I am. So what you want?”

“I don't want anything.”

“Oh, come on, you love my cookin’. Pick something or I'll surprise you.”

“Surprise me.”

“Ok then.”

“No, wait.”

“Yes?”

“Noodles.”

“Noodles? Sure, I can do that. What kinda noodles? Ramen, udon, spaghetti…”

“Udon… with meat, and… cabbage.”

“Udon with meat and cabbage. I'll call you when it's on its way.”

“I have Ikora here.”

“Two udon with meat and cabbage. Gotcha. Three if you count me.”

“I do not know what form I will be in when you arrive."

“I'll call first and you can tell me to wait if you're feeling modest. I ain't complainin’ about your forms though. It's all you to me. Udon's probably easier to eat if you have lips, mind you. But if not, we can figure something out. See you later, many mouthed hunger!”

“Take care, Rat.”

[END TRANSCRIPT]

This is one of a series of stories written during Season of the Witch that I called Kept Conficence, after the hand cannon with the lore that helped to inspire them.

Here is a link to all of them in order if you wish.

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

It's Udon! I've written Drifteris stories involving this specific bog slug! The most recent one has them taking Udon back to the Drifter's ship so Immaru cannot murder it. I love it so.

Look at the skrunkly

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

I wanna know about the bog slug and bullying Immaru 👁👁

As requested, a snippet bullying Immaru and a few regarding the bog slug. The last one is from a thing currently being polished so it has actual sentences and punctuation.

***

Immaru! Immaru. What do you want? You actually talking like I'm here now or am I just the wind? Aww it don't have to be like that. We're friends! Really? Because last time you knocked me off a cliff with one of your coins it didn't seem very friendly. Come on now. I'm a pacifist. Wouldn't hurt a fly. Unless the fly upset Eris. Well… it wouldn't be a fly at that point. At that point it'd be a problem.

***

did it just eat out of your hand? yeah he likes chicken. everybody likes chicken. well except for the ones that don't. but he's a carnivore. how do you know it is a him? I don't. in fact I think cuz he's a worm he's herma… hermi.. uh… self-fertilizin' hermaphroditic that's it. I think worms are like that. could be wrong. cant' remember. But I think so. course he might not be a actual worm. you gonna bring him with you when ya clear out? no. awww. but he likes us.

***

vanguard meeting remote in from athenaeum ikora is talking through the communicator and eris is listening with it on speaker so drifter can hear - drifter is bored

while talking continues, drifter goes to the swamp and puts bit of sandwich on the ground. slowly leaving bits of sandwich further and further away from udon and worm is crawling farther and farther out of its hole. he has it in a long line from the swamp half-way across the ritual circle when eris turns around

drifter looks up at her with a delighted grin and holds his hands out to show her how much of the worm he's coaxed out eris is not amused and stares at him angrily while vanguard meeting continues on comms

***

Eris sighed and folded her hands in her lap. The sounds of the swamp seemed loud in comparison to the silence from her comms. She heard a faint, familiar trill. Perhaps a distraction would help. She brought her data pad and crossed the ritual circle, stepping into the swamp.

A singler red-rimmed eye stared at her from a round head which swayed gently from side to side. Eris approached the bog slug slowly, one hand outstretched. It slowed its swaying and it watched her approach warily but did not pull back into the ground.

Eris crouched next to it and kept her hand outstretched. The segmented creature leaned toward her. Bit by bit Eris brought her fingertips closer until she was just barely touching the chitin of one of it’s head-horns. It trilled softly at her as her fingertips moved along its carapace. Soon her entire hand was on top of its head. It made a gentle clicking noise.

“Hey, hey, Bane of the Swarm!”

The bog slug shrank back into its hole at the audio in Eris’ ear.

“Rat.” Eris could not hide the relief in her voice. “You were gone a long time.”