The spikes of pain that had lanced through his skull, light sensitivity that left him huddled in a ball, and general overstimulation were all gone. The center of his forehead no longer felt like a gaping hole. It didn’t even just feel normal. It now felt … capable. Like a muscle he didn’t know existed had suddenly grown large overnight. Looking to the pocket he checked it again, and confirmed not a single coin had survived his nap. He suspected he’d absorbed them in his sleep and it had helped repair whatever damage he’d done to himself. Well not just repair it. Improve it significantly.
Reaching out mentally he touched the curtains he’d visualized and could feel that, no this wasn’t what he was supposed to do. The improvements those coins had done were allowing him to feel or even see what he was doing. He didn’t go for a faux door either. Those were weak representations of what he wanted, not even close to what he desired. He touched the edge of his new world and could feel the membranous metaphysical material that made it up. It wasn’t limited to single purpose constructs like something a human could build back on earth. Forcing it to become a window was like trying to tear a hole in it. Possibly why he’d gained such an injury in the first place
The best translation he could come up with was a eukaryotic cell. It had functions for allowing things in and out, for protecting itself, even from the inside. The entry and exit points he’d been using so far, and the places they connected to were strikingly obvious to him now. Several other structures and capabilities were hinted at but he couldn’t discern them. Feeling the connection for the Rat square he called to it and found something different than the membrane surrounding his squares. Something smaller, more porous, and thinner. Something like a mitochondria if he was keeping with the cell analogy. That didn’t quite fit but it allowed him to visualize something much better than opening a curtain.
Par for the course the idea he used to represent his desires didn’t quite match up with what actually happened. He evoked the image of a cell swallowing a mitochondria and was amazed as the barest hint of resistance brushed against his efforts while before him he saw a portion of his sky dim to show stars, and the bloated rat appear before him again. His eyes only told half the story. His new sense showed that he hadn’t swallowed the rat square; he could still see the small porous membrane surrounding the square, and his own wasn’t fully enclosing it, more like it was simply hugging it. Which would better explain the mostly bright sky with a circle of dark starry sky. Which was trippy to look at.
He definitely expected the process to be much more difficult, not to mention some continued effort to hold them connected, however it seemed the two cells liked being connected. His new senses were showing the pores, for lack of a better word, on each membrane were open which his own hadn’t been before. That was a hint that the two were exchanging something. Whether that was energy information, both, or a lot more, he didn’t know. A few ideas of what could be happening here were rolling around in his head but he was scared of the possible implications and what it meant for him. He’d address them later when he’d had some time to process it.
For now as much as he was excited about direct access to these rats he was more concerned about the fact that he was starving now, and thirsty as hell. With the change in the layout and access to the rat square he saw merit in utilizing the branches he’d collected earlier. Grabbing the biggest one he walked up to the bloated rat and whacked its head. The stick passed right through the membranes as if they weren’t there and cracked the rat's skull. Well crushed it into oblivion would be a better description. Thankfully the starvation and dehydration drove him past the queasiness at the sight.
Grabbing the rat he stepped back to his little fire pit setup and set it aside. Grabbing the last two sticks he placed a feathered piece of wood between them and began rubbing. What he wouldn't give for a flint on his multitool. Or a lighter. The process took ages, but eventually he got a little smoke from the wood, and finally after far longer after the smoke than he’d thought possible a little ember. Then came nurturing the little ember until it caught into an actual flame in the feathered wood. Quickly, but carefully he placed the flame on the fire pit and piled the rest of the feathered pieces with it. Placing the other two sticks surrounding it. He blew till it caught a few of the other feathered pieces then sat back letting the fire grow on its own. He didn’t have much else to feed it with but that made him remember the branch on the underside of the rat square.
As he turned to go grab it though, he was greeted with another squeak and another rat staring him down. ‘Hmmm’ he wondered ‘when did you get here’. Flipping around to the underside he went to grab the stick, but it was gone. A frown crossed his face but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Jumping back to the topside he saw the rat still sitting there and figured a little testing couldn’t hurt while he waited for the fire to get going. Grabbing up his large stick again he dispatched with this new rat and tossed it by the other. He seated himself so he had a good view of the rat square and started work on the carcasses. He also placed the smaller flat stone on top of the two sticks on the fire as a cooking surface so it would heat up. It only took about a few seconds though before he caught it out of the corner of his eye. A flicker of color at the rat square. Now not only was there a rat, but also another dandelion. Flipping to the underside first he made sure he didn’t miss out on any more resources. Unfortunately there weren’t any this time. Though if the rats showed up every few seconds and spawned random shit when they did, he’d have more soon. Hopping back topside he again dealt with the new rat and tossed it by the other two.
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Ozzy Spent the next ten minutes or so continuing to gut, clean, and prepare the few rats he’d started with. In the meantime killing any new ones that popped up. Pretty quickly he realized he’d be dealing with insane amounts of rats if he kept hanging on to them. Instead he would pop out their coins and toss them back onto the square which he suspected would disappear like the branch did when a new rat showed up. Sure enough it did. In the meantime he’d also gathered another 10 branches some of which he added to the fire. Taken a few sips from a puddle. Found a few more stones. All but one of these ones were just about the size of his hand and the last wasn’t much larger. He only took the one that looked a bit like an axe head already as maybe he could use it. He also found some more plants, most he didn’t recognize or had no real use for if he did. He’d also started cooking the rats.
The smell wafting off the meat was surprisingly appetizing. He hadn’t expected rat meat to smell good. Though odds were he was being heavily influenced by the fact he hadn’t eaten anything since waking up here. But the more browned the meat became the more his mouth started to water. Some of the little pieces were likely beyond well done now so he hesitantly skewered a couple and brought it up. Still not ready to actually dine on rodent he instead gave it a sniff, but his instincts took over after that. The smell of “pan seared” meat inches from his mouth as he was starving caused him to immediately scarf them down.
Hunger driving him to swallow the small bits without even chewing meant Ozzy couldn’t quite get a handle on the taste. Eying the other pieces of the first rat on the stone, he was beginning to think that he couldn’t wait for well done. He’d had his fair share of rare steaks or burgers in the past and they were great, but his aversion to rodent meat had caused him to wait quite a bit longer than he usually would on the heat. Again his hunger drove him forward even as his mind still said wait. Taking the next smallest piece of rat, this one large enough that he actually had to bite off a piece, he chewed it and swallowed, then went in for more. The taste was actually not bad. Reminding him of the one time he’d tried rabbit. Needless to say he wasn’t proud of eating something most would be disgusted just looking at. Despite that Being able to feed himself in such a strange new environment did give him a sense of worth he hadn’t felt before.
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The recliner was leaned back all the way and Ozzy reveled in being relaxed, fat, and happy. The meal wasn’t amazing but at least he was full. The meat had enough juice to be easy going down even without something to wash it down. He was thirsty still and wasn’t looking forward to slurping muddy water out of a puddle again. He’d do it though if that’s what he needed to survive. There was no doubt now that he would do whatever it took to survive. There'd always been a certain feeling back on earth. Not just from him but much of his generation that humans weren’t animals. That they inherently strove to be better. That they didn’t have the same drives as ‘base’ animals. But when it came down to the wire it only took a day or so of surviving on your own to wipe that feeling away.
That thought process gave him a new resolve. He was going to figure out where the hell he was and not just survive but thrive here. Speaking of, there was a pile of the coins just sitting there waiting for him. Being able to simply smack a rat whenever it showed up without needing to hop back and forth between worlds really made the process so much faster. There were around fifty of them now and he needed to figure out what to do with them. He didn’t quite want to get up yet, but that was ok. He had a handy new sense thanks to those coins. Reaching out a feeler he touched one. What he felt was interesting. Keeping with the cellular theme he might call this a nucleus. That would really be stretching though.
There was a membrane and he could feel ‘pores’ on the surface but when reaching inside it was a dense swirling mess of energy not information. He could try to label it something like a fat cell but he really needed to stop trying to make cellular structures fit as this was something different. This was more like the eastern legends of a beast core. Now that he thought of it, that was obviously the best description of it he could come up with and wondered why he hadn’t thought of it earlier. Being honest with himself he’d never been very devoted to that type of fantasy.
Despite having been examining the core for a while now he realized it didn’t zap him or absorb into him. Sure he wasn’t holding it physically but this extension of him was just as much him. Or so he thought of it. With that thought he remembered the change he’d caused to the membrane with this tendril and tried to grab the core like he had the membrane and draw it to him. When he tried to use what he felt was an appropriate level of force he was rewarded by a smack against his foot. Unfortunately he’d put up his soggy socks to dry and felt it would leave quite the welt. Though the shock made him drop the core it simply plopped onto the footrest and tilted into his foot and started to be absorbed.
This gave him a great opportunity to observe. His new senses allowed him to see the energy enter his foot and spread out rapidly. Almost identical to how he envisioned lightning traveling around the body. Chaotic was the best description he had. The energy would dissipate into random points in his body and alter them slightly. Some of those points being the welt forming on the bottom of his foot. Others were more random though it seemed to be focusing on pains, damage and or weaknesses. Each of his organs received a little attention. Including his bladder which appeared to get more than other organs. His muscles, bones, and his brain all got a dash as well. In the end he was left feeling like he’d had a nice nap and was rested and ready to go. Sitting up fully in the recliner he eyed the rest of the pile hungrily as he stood. Oh he was definitely going to be thriving here.