“[Notice, increased amount of Vegetal Biomass within area. Recording location within database, saved for emergency refuel of Biomass in case of emergency.]”

GREEN!

Everything was green!

“[Fan Girl]! I see a thing! What is this thing doing here!?!? Wasn’t it part of the [Oxygen Replenishment System] within the [City Blocks]?!?!?” Alexa asked as she pointed at a [Vegetal Entity] at the distance, this place had several of these all around the place.

These consisted of what seemed to be hardened resin with what seemed to be parts of its body sinking into the earth.

“Is it dangerous? Is it another [Slave Species] to [Humanity]???” Alexa only came close to the thing when she noticed other [Humans] seemed to either ignore or walk past them. “Why doesn’t it move? What does it eat? I don’t see [Biomass] remains around. Nor [Blood]. How?”

Alexa poked the [Thing] with her finger here and there, and when it didn’t react, she ended up sinking some tendrils that had grown from the palm of her hand. A few minutes ago, [Fan Girl] had scolded her about growing tendrils, so she now was hiding the tendrils.

“...Are you playing a joke on me? That is a Tree.” [Fan Girl] answered while looking weirdly at Alexa, “You saw them in the city, and I am sure Eleanore has a bonsai tree somewhere in her office. You have seen them.”

That was true. Alexa had indeed seen these [Trees], but she had seen them within the [City] or within [Rooms]. She had guessed that they were some type of [Biological Purifying Machine], something made by the [Humans] to fulfill some kind of mission.

These? These were in the wild, with no machinery or part construction around. Nothing that seemed to imply they had a function, no [Owner] to speak, these just stood here…doing [things].

“[Blueprint acquired.]”

Notice:

Blueprint acquired; Tree archetype blueprint acquired.

These organisms grow and survive by the use of an alternative lifestyle, they take nutrients from within the soil to sustain their biology, water is taken from the soil in the same way. They grow roots within the earth and extend their area of influence.

This organism archetype has less organs overall:

-Leaves, used for the photosynthesis and production of hormones and chemicals

-Twigs and Branches, support structure for leaves, flowers and fruits.

-Crown, upper part of tree composed of leaves, twigs, branches and flowers/fruits.

-Flowers, site of reproduction, produce seeds to increase number of trees or plants.

-Fruits and seeds, means of reproducing, they are either generated as seeds to be send around or as a fruit so another species transports it away.

-Trunk, a single organ that can be multiple-stemmed. Main function is material transport and support.

-Bark, external tissue whose main function is to protect and serve as armor.

-Roots, collects nutrients and water for the organism and serves as an anchor so the tree doesn’t fall.

…It…. ate nutrients from the earth? The soil had nutrients? What?

“... They eat soil?” Alexa asked aloud, not sure if she could believe what she was reading.

“They eat the nutrients in the soil, the fertility within it; some gardeners must come occasionally to spread fertilizer and water these things when needed. They just chill while taking the required nutrients and water from the soil, they take the energy from the sun and clean our polluted air.” [Fan Girl] answered Alexa’s doubts. “In a nutshell, they are trees. They do tree stuff; they don’t move, speak, react or anything, they just stay there… unless a corpo needs a new chair, in which case, they take the tree down and use their wood to make the furniture.”

….Oh… the vegetable biomass… They used their O2 purifiers to make… furniture.

She remembered now, all the [Box shaped entities] she saw when running away, those were shelves, chairs, tables and boxes. All made from [Vegetal Biomass]... all made from… [Wood], taken from others like this [Tree].

“Can they awake [Core Powers]?” Alexa asked taking her tendril back into her body and removing her hand from the tree. “They are living right? They should qualify for whatever weird process needed to awaken a [Core].”

As far as Alexa knew, the [Core] powers shouldn’t be exclusive to [Humanity], she had awoken one, and the existence of [Beast Cores] and [Insect Cores] spoke of a duality that wasn’t limited to [Humans]. Nothing said that all the [Beast Core] users were humans before, some of them could be [Beasts] that awoke [Human Cores], Alexa felt that those stories about [Beast Cores] and [Insect Core] users going wild could be explained like that.

“...I don’t think so? There are plenty theories about how we get and earn our Core, but more often than not they speak of us getting a Wish to be fulfilled. And that requires someone to grant it.” [Fan Girl] walked towards the [Tree] and placed a hand on it, Alexa noticed how her eyes shone in green light first, then after that had shown, a second purple-ish hue showed for a fraction of a second.

“[Detected abnormal Mana Wave within area. Caution is advised.]”

“Yeah, no Core within this particular Tree.” [Fan Girl] said with a sad smile, “But that is a good way to look at the world, even if it is sad that you never saw a goddamned Tree before.”

…Well that was discrimination.

Alexa was sure there had been plenty of people that had never seen a [Tree] before!

Just like how there were surely plenty of people that had never seen the weird bushy green thing there!

Yes!

Surely!

….

“That is a bush Alexa, think of it like a weird cousin of the Tree, really, it is just branches and leafs, sometimes they have berries or something else, but don’t eat them unless you know for sure if they are poisonus or not. There shouldn’t be any poisonous berries around, but there are some assholes that like to plant poisonous plants to mess up with people.” [Fan Girl] frowned her face while saying this.

Had…had she eaten one of those?

…surely not right? Alexa could differentiate those easily enough.

“[Notice, host isn’t the one that finds out dangerous substances but Main Core.]”

See? Main Core also agreed that it was easy enough to tell whether something was poisonous or not!

“[....]”

“Alexa? Promise me you will not eat whatever you find on the ground. Trust me on this, you don’t want your tummy hurting.” [Fan Girl] said with narrowed eyes at Alexa.

This felt like how [Eleanore] was when she was scolding Alexa! Danger!

“Alexa promises to only eat things that her tummy can withstand!” Alexa so declared, “And that if I find something that I don’t know if my tummy can take I will check with someone that knows!”

That someone of course was [Main Core]!

“....I feel like you are cheating on me somehow. We will ask Eleanore later to double-check on this.” [Fan Girl] said while shaking her head. Why did people like to shake their heads near Alexa?

Was it fun?

*shake shake*

….It didn’t feel fun.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“So, we are at the park. Want to go and play with other kiddos…..” [Fan Girl] said, looking around and noticing that there wasn’t a single [Child Stage - Human] around. “Right…they are at school…”

Alexa was, too, after all. At school at this time, so that was why she hadn’t seen many when she escaped? Then should she be on the open like this?

“Should Alexa call for one of her older Alexas?” Alexa asked. She didn’t want to, of course, but if it compromised her [Disguise], then it should be done. Alexa did want to continue enjoying [Life] if possible.

“hmm….we may need to, try to call the older one. I have had enough dealing with your bratty form; I don’t want to imagine how you are in your teenager form at extended periods of time.” [Fan Girl] grinned at her.

Was this…a compliment? Or some kind of endearment? Alexa felt that the words seemed to be those of an [Insult], but the tone was that of [Friendship]. It was weird!

“Okay!” Alexa answered and turned to look around. She needed a place where people couldn’t see her while [Shifting]. They had been clear enough that she should hide as much as possible!

There!

“Alexa will return!” Alexa screamed while jumping into the biggest [Bush] around, it was almost as big as [Fan Girl], so it should suffice. “Main Core! Start the [Shift]!”

Was the last thing Alexa said before her body hit the [Bush] and sank deep within its green embrace. Her body started changing quickly as her [Nanites] started working, pulling [Biomass] from her [Storage].

They also started taking parts of it to modify her clothing. Instead of her [Uniform], the [Skirt] grew a few centimeters longer, just long enough to cover enough. Her stockings turned longer to accommodate her new form, her [Blouse] grew both wide and long, and her hair turned into a neatly set-up ponytail.

Her shoes turned into [Sneakers], and her bracelet grew wider to accommodate her new wrist size.

“[Shift finished, host. Please do not attempt to do this again as fixing and closing the wounds and mending the cloth from the damage caused by the branches is wasted effort.]”

“I wasn’t the one who decided to do this!” Alexa grumbled as she fought her way out of the bush, “Who would even think of jumping into a [Bush]!”

As she tried to get out of the stupid thing, Alexa had a hard time fighting it off. Branch got hold of her hair, and some tried to rip her [Blouse] and [Skirt]. If it wasn’t for the fact that she had [Nanites] on the stupid things, she might have ended up showing more [Skin] than intended!

…Why was that a problem?

Alexa knew it was a problem, but why? She had never thought that would be a problem while on her [Teen] or [Child] stage form. But suddenly it became a problem for her [Young Woman] stage form?

“[Possible reason may be related with development of the brain and increased hormonal development within host. More complex emotions seems to be created while at this Development Stage.]”

…[Humans] are weird.

“....do you….pfft…. need…some….pfft….help?” [Skye] seemed to be having some kind of problem with her [Voice] module, as she was having trouble between deciding if she wanted to [Laugh] or [Speak].

“Nah, it’s fine. I am almost there, just…” Alexa looked around to make sure no one was looking in her direction, and taking a lesson from her [Child Stage], she also made sure no [Camera] was turned her way. “...let me cut these…”

And with one quick motion from her hand, she sent a few tendrils with a razor sharp edge at one side, that was all it took for her to cut all the [Branches] that had stuck to her [Hair] and [Clothes]. The half that was still stuck to her body would be slowly absorbed and turned into [Biomass] to feed what she would lose from taking [Biomass] from her [Storage] to recreate her [Young Woman] stage.

“There, all done. So what is the plan? [Eleanore] wanted you to take my [Child Stage] to the park, but without other [Child Stage - Humans] around, we may as well leave and spend time, right?” Alexa asked while making sure her [Clothes] were presentable. She was the most [Beautiful], so it wouldn’t do for her [Appearance] to be anything but perfect.

“...Oh god, the image is so much worse when it’s you doing the weird tentacle play.” [Skye] shivered while hugging herself, “Please don’t use those near me, they will give me nightmares…or weird dreams, not sure which would be worse.”

“?” Alexa was confused, what was the problem with her tendrils? Or was it [Tentacles]? Now?

“Main Core?” Alexa sent the prompt to [Main Core].

“[Notice, Tendril seems to refer to smaller and less thick appendages, usually within the size that host was using while on her Child Stage form. While Tentacles seem to refer to the same design but with a thicker and more robust make, such as those made at this current Stage.]”

“So the difference is merely in size? That seems like a suboptimal way to refer to these designations.” Alexa ended that thread of conversation at that.

[Humans] took the weirdest ways to describe things, this was only being made more obvious with each passing moment.

“Sure..not like I need them while pretending to be a normal [Civilian].” Alexa said while making sure all the [Tendrils] she had made returned within her body, she did leave some extra ones around her body, most of those had been send with a very specific mission.

“[Notice, the use of extra tendrils to make sure clothes remain in place to hide Clothing Elements Designation: Underwear is a missuse of resources.]”

“Hey [Skye], random question. Why does it feel wrong to show my body? I feel like it is [Wrong] to remove my [Blouse] or [Skirt], even though I have [Underwear] below this.” Alexa said walking to the side of [Skye], “I didn’t feel like this while using the [BodySuit] even though that one was almost as good as a second [Skin.]”

“Pffffttt………….” [Skye] made a weird sound with her tongue and mouth as if she had got something stuck within her [Throat], and after that, she continued coughing as if to expel such foreign material.

“I can help with the dislodgement of [Foreign] material within your [Throat] if needed. “ Alexa said raising her hand, “I could make a [Tentacle] and cover it in [Non-Toxic Lubricant] so it doesn’t [Hurt] during [Insertion.]”

Alexa didn’t actually have a [Blueprint] for a non-toxic [Lubricant], but she could probably make one using [Vegetal Oil]. She had gotten some sub [Blueprints] from the [Tree], and among them were some interesting designs for [Tree Sap] that she could probably adjust just enough to achieve this objective.

“laksdfaslhfkasflhafkhhggrag.” [Skye]’s face turned to a red tinge as she started covering her [Mouth] with both hands while still struggling to breathe.

“...If the [Mouth] is a no-go…” Alexa said while eyeing [Skye] from bottom to top, “...we don’t have too many options, but I guess we could take a longer detour?”

Alexa didn’t think it would be too comfortable, but using the [Nose] could probably achieve a good success.

“Wa…te….r…..” Alexa managed to hear after some struggle from [Skye] who Alexa wasn’t sure if she was [Crying], [Laughing] or [Breathing].

“Sure, here…” Alexa said while sending a [Tendril] from below her [Sneakers] into the [Dirt]. She took some water content from there and redirected it into a [Metal Cup] she made atop her hand. It was a neat way to redirect resources without expending her own.

Actually, wouldn’t it had been easier to distile some [Water] from her body and give that?

Alexa felt like that would be [Wrong]...but why? It was water one way or another…

“*Sigh*.” [Skye] took the cup as soon as it was filled and Alexa offered it, the [Girl] took it all in one go and gave a longer sigh, “God, you are a menace. Your child form is a menace, but your adult form is also a menace in other means…Where did you even see…. people using tentacles, what kind of things did they show you?”

[Skye] said shaking her head while making sure to stay a couple steps farther from Alexa than before, weird.

“Nowhere? I didn’t see anyone [Using Tentacles] anywhere, it just felt natural. If something is stuck in the [Throat], then we slip something to pull it out. Granted if the [Mouth] was a no go then a slimmer [Tentacle] going throught the [Nose] could work too…” Alexa said defending her case, she hadn’t actually made the modification to her hands yet of course, “I think it would be more uncomfortable going from the [Nose], but that is just me.”

“...The nose?” [Skye] asked as if Alexa had said something wrong, “...you aren’t pulling a fast on me?”

“Yes, the nose. It is the closest way to the [Throat], neither [Eyes] or [Ears] have an open way to the [Throat]. Another option would have been opening a [Wound] and extracting the foreign element. But doing so may invite a greater response from other [People].” Alexa answered confused.

As far as her [Anatomy] went, the only way to access the [Throat] was through the [Nose]. Granted if she went the long way she may have a secondary way there…But that felt like a waste of resources.

“....I see…yeah, I can see it, you raping my throat/nose would be less impacting than you opening my throat open with a knife…” [Skye] nodded her head in understanding, “AS IF!”

Or not?

“I swear to god…if we ever find out who raised you, we need to put him down, or at least send him to a mental asylum.” [Skye] sighed once more, was she missing some maintenance? “ What happened to you? You weren’t this…unstable before.”

Unstable?

Alexa was being unstable?

“Elaborate, Alexa isn’t unstable. Or it isn’t more unstable, at least.” Alexa said while doing some self-diagnosis, as far as her personal information was concerned, nothing had changed within her [Consciousness Stream].

“I mean, you were weird yes. But it didn’t show up like this, I feel like you wouldn’t have asked permission to rape my throat when we were about to go into a mission.” [Skye] said pointing that example.

“...define: Rape,” Alexa asked for confirmation.

“...Let’s not go that way just yet; let’s just say it's a somewhat nasty thing to do to someone else, be it female or male. “ [Skye] said without elaborating, “ Anyway! In this case, I meant it mostly as a joke, with your tentacle thing going into my mouth…it’s an internet thing!”

She then continued to not elaborate further, but at least she gave her an idea of what it was.

“Main Core?” So Alexa sent the prompt inwardly.

“[Awknowledged….Searching….]” And Main Core answered promptly.

“So yeah, don’t shove tentacles into your friends or coworkers!” [Skye] said with her face still red, “Unless they are into that! Or..you know, they are your boyfriend…or girlfriend…are you….?”

“[First Query finished. Rape: It is the act of performing sexual intercourse or sexual penetration carried against another person’s will. It does not respect the idea of Human Consent, there are evidence of sequelae to one such act persisting for prolonged amounts of time. These consequences may vary from physical to mental ones, being in the form of uncontrollable fear towards the gender of the assaulter or pregnancy.]” Main Core gave a longer answer than what she was used to. Followed by an interesting addition. “[Resources added within the metadata left by the Humans for others to use.]

“[The National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE]”

“[Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN)]”

“That seems like…..too much data.” Alexa said, cataloging the information; they seemed to care greatly for these types of [Crimes]. Because if she was reading this correctly, they were crimes. Alexa found notes about plenty of laws that had something to do with this topic. "And the second prompt?”

“[Found 69 yottabytes of media labeled as Pornography with these tags. They seem to be tailored to both males and females, and are mostly fake scenarios where males or females are sexually assaulted in scenarios by what seems to be Test Subjects according to their biological makeup.]”

And at the side of that was an image of what…did look like the [Tentacles] that Alexa had made before, only instead of growing from her [Hands], these grew from…the [Crotch Area]. Why?

That was…

“[Sub optimal]”

“Alexa?” [Skye] asked, bringing her back from her data dive. Her internal clock showed that, thanks to the mental acceleration, she had only been unresponsive for two seconds. “Do you…. you know… swing for both sides?”

….what?

“I…guess?” Alexa answered, she had plenty confidence into being able to swing in any given direction, “Either way, that isn’t relevant. Why am I uncomfortable about showing skin?”

Alexa wasn’t sure why, and she didn’t particularly care about 69 yottabytes of porn. She didn’t even want to start into analyzing that data, too much data for something she didn’t knew if it would be worth. And while she could theoretically download in parts, she didn’t want to deal with it. Nor did it feel like it was worth Main Core’s time.

“Yeah that…that was the main issue… god, the threat of getting raped does distract one… “ [Skye] said with a weird smirk on her face, was this… a [Joke]?

“[Notice, humoristic attempt to grease social relationships…. confirmed. Joke.]”

Alexa smiled, and sure enough, [Skye] nodded while her [Smile] blossomed more.

“So that is… our body is sacred, something personal that we don’t want to share. I mean, I am sure you like how the other men and women look at you with envy, right?” [Skye] said while pointing with her eyes at some people that had just passed by a few dozen meters away from them.

The [Man] turned to look at both of them up and down, while the woman did the same, then looked at the [Man], her eyes turned angry and looked back at Alexa once more, this time, Alexa could detect [Anger] in her eyes too.

“[Detected increase of hormonal response, endorphins released automatically by brain. Nerve ending governing pleasure and good feelings stimulated.]”

Yeah, Alexa [Liked] that feeling.

“See? But now think about how you would feel if that same one could look at you undressed when you don’t want them to.” [Skye] said after.

And for some weird reason…

“[Automatic response detected, no threat to host or disguise, automatic response allowed.]”

Her hands darted quickly to cover her [Breast] and [Crotch] area, one hand for each. She almost [Shifted] a pair of extra [Arms] to cover herself better, but that thread of thought was axed since it would compromise her [Disguise].

“And that is shame. Some people thrive on it, feeling good from it. Don’t go that way, even if you can get a new identity. Some people may still find out. If it was that easy, our big boss would have gotten a Human appearance.” [Skye] said with a smirk. Alexa could feel her face had turned a few shades of red.

She didn’t like this [Shame].

“Or I would have gotten a new face to go with this name” [Skye] mumbled something under her breath but Alexa didn’t logged it as important, since it was merely some weird mention about getting a new face. That wasn’t something important to have, Alexa had several of those after all.

“So? What are we supposed to do now?” Alexa asked. They had gotten to the park. Her child self had enjoyed it, thrown herself into the bushes, and didn’t deal with the consequences.

“Now? Without kids to nanny?” [Skye] smiled brightly as her eyes turned [Predatory], “Now we go searching for a bar, we need to train you. Don’t think I didn’t find out that you got blackout drunk with only two beers. We need to train you, with a body like that everyone will hound you. Even if they find out about your age…which I guess right now is of age, so like whatever.”

Alexa wasn’t quite sure if that was something that could be trained…Besides she could manipulate her [Alcohol] limit easily enough…

At least when [Main Core] wasn’t feeding new liquids straight to her system at the highest dosage possible to see how the body reacted….