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A tiny part of you wants to harvest SOMETHING from this thing and you have a guttural feeling it wouldn't mind but, no. It's better to be kind to this creature. To try to make things right.
You can't fix it in one go, you know that much, but maybe you can relieve its suffering for a brief moment.
You toss three ICE PICKS on the ground right by Max's feet. She's quick to realize what you want her to do. She picks up the scattered ice picks and with a lazy toss, she throws one past the anomaly.
Its 'head' slowly shifts around in the direction the pick was thrown. With a sluggish but excited pace, it drags itself after the pick.
Max cautiously smiles while she plays a, admittedly bizarre, game of fetch with the anomaly. "There, there. Don't exhaust yourself too much."
It takes about a solid two minutes for it to drag itself thirty feet (which is how far it was thrown) over to the pick.)
When it comes back with the first pick, held loosely in one of its front appendages, it's already a melted mess. The metal head reminds you of the fluid you'd see in old thermostats. The handle's not far behind in being completely liquified.
"Good job! If you get the next two within two minutes, we'll get you a treat! A special one all of us have prepared just for you!"
<span class="mu-s">"T...reat...?"</span> The anomaly's voice is filled with doubt. <span class="mu-s">"T...rick? T-trick...us?"</span>
"Absolutely not." She gives both you and Casey the side-eye. She expects YOU to figure out what it is. "I promise you. Cross my heart, hope to die."
<span class="mu-s">"Prom..ise."</span>
"I promise." Max places her hand over her heart. "Now! Let's beat your record! I know you have it in you!"
You turn to Casey while Max is busy playing catch with a far more excitable dog anomaly abomination. "So. What the hell can we give it that's a 'treat'?"
"Hmmm! This is quite the pickle. Could we feed it a tasty snack, perchance, like a $9.99 Triple Kilo with Cheddar?"
"Maybe? But most of the food I have is laced with drugs, bad idea. I have some old fish but even if we did give it the fish, it's a big anomaly. It would want a lot."
"That is an issue. We simply do not have the supply to satisfy it that way." Casey's stumped for a moment and so are you. You decide to propose a pretty dangerous idea given what it did to that metal ice pick.
"What if one of us hugged it? When's the last time anyone has touched it? I'm willing to do the deed. It would hurt like a bastard but I'm your leader. It's only fitting-"
[QUEEN BEE MINDSET + MERICURAL] "Nay. You hired us for a reason." Casey snaps at you with a stern tone that's far more befitting of a peeved probation officer than a LARPing bee(?). "I respect you caring about the welfare of your employees. But an employee must do their fair share of work."
Damn. You raise your hands up in mock surrender. "If you say so. I still want to help so, here, have this." You toss an old pill from your inventory: a SOMTOIN ZETA pill. A small half-and-half grey-crimson pill you had for a while.
