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There’s a lot of topics here, and they’re hard to approach by themselves. So you try to string them along. “So that… thing. The Nalkainen. What is that, thing? We’ve had that for… how long?”
“Not for terribly long, I fear,” Blythe answers, his patterned speech still lingering intermittently between labored breaths of the Liquid IV purging it from his system. “It’s… not an aberration. Aberrations are… mutated animals. This, the Nalkainen… we aren’t certain of the nature of its creation. It was made, I believe. Perhaps, in a similar fashion to the trolls, the gods orchestrated their creation by causing a chain of events… or perhaps it was simply man’s own hubris that he created the spitting image of himself, at the precise moment of the calamity… obsessed with consumption and growth, until the very soil ‘neath his feet turns to dust. But it is no being of natural evolution, influenced by accursed radiation or otherwise. Of that, we are certain.”
“So it’s… older than the calamity?”
“That, I cannot say…” Blythe answers, his tone bearing a level of difficulty. “Only, it was a gift, to Jousten, for research. She’s been very progress oriented since her promotion to L4. Indeed, the Red Dogs were invited to bring their drone over to take on a generator mimicking the Nalkainen’s digestive functions. The mechanics work, but as it is, that generator lacks the raw output, is what I’ve heard…” He shrugs, wiping his brow from sweat. “I am a noita, the esoteric workings of the Undercroft are not my focus. I care more to understand the unknown. Tackle more… unfathomable uncertainties. Like the Nalkainen, its arcane nature, as something supernatural, yet not aberrant...”
… Leshy did mention he objected to supplying her with “test subjects.” And it seems Percival is not aware of the Nalkainen’s origins himself. Or, not willing to share them with someone like yourself.
But more relevantly. “And Miss Jousten was planning on… employing it, to fight Lorppo?”
“As was clarified, it’s not dumb. The Nalkainen can make chatter. Bargain, be bribed, persuaded… see?” He shakes his head to regain his senses. “She believed it could be taught, through behavioral reinforcement to be as us. Seek long-term benefits. Cooperate. Do tasks, and be rewarded. Katriina also believes that if there’s any way she can avoid sending agents against Lorppo, it should be taken. Quite different from our predecessors, who believed a more… cyclical approach to our agents afforded the citizens with more births.”
Yeouch.
“And, indeed, I do believe it is up to task of facing Lorppo. It is capable of manipulating weaponry. With the right training and equipment, it could be a force to be reckoned with, though in my humble opinion, that is the <span class="mu-i">last</span> thing we should be doing with it.”
