After finding out that videogames exist, which is honestly not that surprising. I spent all night watching square checkers matches between Cake and Kiwi and it got very competitive between them; I have never seen Kiwi stay awake for as long as she did tonight. I watched over their games and tallied all of their winnings.
Cake: 23
Kiwi: 5
Cake won almost all of the time due to her increased intelligence, obviously. I did try to play one match against Cake and it went about as well as I thought, starting out as a normal game but then once toward the ending Cake would purposefully make some huge mistake and allow me to easily win.
However, I am not mad about it, it was extremely entertaining to watch two monsters try to figure out how to play a board game. Since Cake is a crab, she had a lot of trouble using her big claws to grab onto the small pieces, so she had to use her mouth claws to move the pieces. She was originally somewhat shy about it but slowly got used to it.
But...I feel like I’m forgetting something important about Cake the hermit crab-girl.
Hmm...hermit...crab….crab...WAIT I FORGOT TO TELL GOTHALYN TO BUY CAKE CRAB MEAT!!!
Ok! Calm down...calm down...calm down...Cake is doing just fine without it and I am not entirely sure if Cake would even like actual ocean crab or even if this planet has it, although I assume they do. I wonder why monsters haven’t killed all of the pigeons and other wildlife, especially the pigeons. This sounds like a question for the smartphone, I’m hopefully being brought!
===
Meanwhile, Brooklyn was explaining, exactly why she needed to borrow her sister’s school laptop, since it was easier than asking for Veronica's phone, and Gothalyn also doesn’t use a phone.
“So, let me guess this straight,” Veronica says surprised by Brooklyn’s story, “Your friend needs to borrow my laptop because they don’t have a way to use the internet and they were the ones who saved you from dying in the cave, honestly I don’t think I've ever heard you talk about having a friend or nearly dying. Did you get infected with some sort of disease in that cave?”
“Please,” Brooklyn says to her sister.
“Wow! You really did meet a friend in that cave, I didn’t think you would ever make any friends, let alone one in a cave! Ah...I’m sorry, it’s just,” Veronica begins to apologize for her comment.
“It. Ok,” Brooklyn says.
“No, it’s not I shouldn’t have said that, to begin with, but I am just excited,” Veronica says.
“Excited? About?” Brooklyn asks confused.
“I’m excited about your new boyfriend or are they a girl, you never really said,” Veronica says.
“I. Am. Uncertain,” Gothalyn says trying to hide the fact that Puffball is a monster without lying, although Puffball has called themselves a guy, monsters are all technically genderless.
“Ah...so they are trans? That’s cool, too. I don’t think I’ve ever met a trans person before...WAIT DID YOU BECOME FRIENDS WITH GENDER SWAPPING WO-MAN! Wait no, I don’t think they would want to be your friend, since they are a hero and all. But then who could you have found in some cave?”
“Puffball, I guess,” Brooklyn words out a “long” sentence for her sister.
“That is totally a girl name, although it’s a pretty weird one but it's cute, what were they doing in the cave? Puffball isn’t a hero on the registry, it doesn’t sound all that villainous, and they don’t sound like a typical powered person if they were venturing in someplace that you nearly died.
“Please,” Brooklyn doesn’t want her sister to know this sensitive info.
Veronica picked up that Brooklyn was talking about something she didn’t want to talk about, so she thought that Brooklyn was probably talking about a newbie villain with a good power that was able to save her sister from death, and that villain told Brooklyn to keep quiet about them. Veronica could probably make her sister crack, but out of the immense respect she held for Brooklyn, she decided to just give Brooklyn her laptop on one condition.
“Can I leave a message for them? I want to say how thankful I am for them saving you and since they are your first friend,” Veronica said.
“Sure,” Brooklyn saw nothing wrong with that and shrugged her shoulders.
“Then I’ll hop right to it after I finish my research paper,” Veronica said before mumbling under her breath, “Stupid auto-correct better not mess me up again, I still can’t believe it auto-corrected a word from ‘ropbot’ to ‘rapebot…”
That reminded Brooklyn of something she had completely forgotten to do yesterday, she forgot to give Puffball its metal robot figurine toy, she was too caught up in fighting that she had completely forgotten about giving it to Puffball, however, Brooklyn forgot where she had put it when she came home.
===
Meanwhile, at the very bottom of an extremely large cylindrical room, where all the sewage tunnels connect and flowed down into a massive river, before being dumped outside the city in the man-made lake, known as Lake Loins.
At the very bottom of that river lied a species of tentacle monster, very much unlike Joy’s species which was unique, albino, and land-based. This species was instead common, greenish-brown, and aquatic-based. This species showed up in the sewers, slightly differently than most monsters that naturally found their way inside. They found their way to the sewers by being flushed down the toilet by their irresponsible owners and slowly mutated from small balls of harmlessness into competitive tentacle monsters that collectively will hatch hundreds of eggs per week, that will fight for their survival every second after being born.
However, there was one tentacle monster at the bottom of all that sewage, that decided it was time to take a break from all that killing and mutilating when it found a metal toy figure at the bottom of the large sewage river and decided to play with it by repeatedly throwing it and curling its tendrils around the body of the metal robot figure.
You could even go so far as to say, that this specific cruel monster was experiencing for the first, and probably last, time in its life a feeling of happiness, fulfillment, and most important of all, Joy.
===
‘Maistear? What? This?”’ Kiwi tries to use her limited vocabulary.
‘Ah, I just thought that since you sleep a lot, I would renovate this old couch and turn it into a bed,’
‘Bed? Floor?’ Kiwi says.
‘No, Kiwi the floor is not a bed, well at least to anyone besides you, look this is a bed! I even added a blanket for you, although it is made from old curtains, Cake tore off. Here try it out!’
I watch as Kiwi slowly climbs up, using their mantis limbs, and lays down on the horribly old couch I found.
‘So, how do you like it?’ I ask Kiwi.
‘ZzzZzz’
I honestly shouldn’t be surprised. As I was watching Kiwi sleep, wondering how she will look when she evolves next. The front wooden door opens up, and I look to make sure it’s Gothalyn, it was and I excitedly roll over to Gothalyn to see if she brought a phone or something.
“Don’t damage,” Gothalyn says, handing me the laptop, before pulling it back and saying, “Pet while using.,”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
She wants to pet me while I use it, I wonder if I can lose any more dignity than I already have...probably not, but I know better than anyone to expect the unexpected, especially with what I might find in that sea of knowledge known as the internet.
“Fine,” Cake says to Gothalyn, and I open up the laptop as Gothalyn starts to prod and stroke me, I recognize that this keyboard is slightly different, not in letters but in order. They are all reversed so instead of starting with, ‘QWERTY’ it starts with ‘MNBVC’ which makes me type like an old grandma even though I was actually a pro gamer, not really but I could type pretty fast.
I slink a small tendril over the keyboard and lightly tap the power button.
“How know?” Gothalyn says watching me.
GagOs, I can tell her I used to be a human as long as I lie and say that I was a human from this world, right?
“Yes, and it will lead to a great future for you filled with torture, experimentation, and lots and lots of tests,”
Gothalyn wouldn’t do that, I think, but you could also be lying, however, you don’t seem to lie very often do you, GagOs.
“Hold on…” GagOs says.
*facepalm sound* *facepalm sound* *facepalm sound*
“That seems to be in working order, I just had to do it three times to signify the three million circuits that fried themselves after hearing that,”
What?! What did I think?!
“...however, you don’t seem to lie very often do you, Verthrariug,” GagOs repeats my thought.
I don’t get it, what are you trying to say!?
*facepalm sound*
“Four million and counting, I don’t know if anyone has ever told you about your missing brain stem but I will, you are missing a brain stem,” GagOs says.
Spit it out!
“I can’t lie to you,” GagOs says.
...what
GagOs adds, “...well technically I could, but sarcasm is a form of lie that’s okay as long as I make it so that even you and your lack of a brain stem can understand its meaning, like this, ‘You are a very intelligent, super handsome, and good monster that I would never want to take full control over,”
[Would you like to allow Verthrariug the 627):73&8/ full control over your body]
Yes/No
I almost smash the laptop in my frustration with GagOs, however, I stop myself as I feel Gothalyn’s grip become like a vice around my tendril and I see her smile twist into the most sadistic evil smile I have ever seen her make before saying.
“Don’t damage,”
My annoyance for GagOs may be great, but my fear of a certain goth woman is much MUCH greater. I hope she forgot about asking me how I know how to use a laptop.
“Now. How use laptop?”
Shit! I need to say something...uhm, it worked last time so, I'll do it again.
“Remember I gained knowledge about the world from my mutation, using a laptop just happened to be one of the things included,” Cake says for me.
Gothalyns face turns from a horrible evil smile into a face that says, I should have expected that.
I hope I can keep using that lie forever or that Gothalyn stops asking me these questions that I don’t really want to answer, as to avoid GagOs’s truth bomb that revealing anything about my past is probably not for the best, however, GagOs could just be lying that she can't lie.
*facepalm sound*
“Five million. Wow, you are just breaking all kinds of records for stupidity; someone should give you a medal for it, so here is a digital medal I made for you,” GagOs says before adding, “In honor of your accomplishments, I bestow upon you a medal forged from a single line of code that recognizes your immense stupidity…”
Mute.
Alright, so let's see what this laptop can do, the first thing I spot upon closer examination is an open tab, titled, ‘Thank you Puffball,’ I am a little curious about who wrote this since I’m pretty sure Gothalyn would rather just use her crappy low word count language, although they did call me Puffball so maybe Gothalyn did write this. I curiously read the digital letter.
‘From Veronica to Puffball,
Thank you for saving my sister from dying. I don’t know much about it other than that but I know that when my sister, Brooklyn, was trapped in a cave with you. You saved her from death and gave her a friend when she has never had anyone in her life besides me. I know that you do not want other people to meet you, so I am writing this letter instead of meeting you in person, also you have a very cute name. I hope to see you at least once in my life to thank you in person for all you have done for both my sister and me.
Thank you from the deepest part of my heart, Puffball.'
…I have no words to describe the feeling I am experiencing right now, is it sadness, happiness, surprise, astonishment? I think it’s a mixture of all four and I think I would be overcome with emotion if they didn’t call me Puffball! Brooklyn! I learned your name before you learned mine...because I never told you, but that is irrelevant. I am the master and you are a pawn!
*brrrrrrr*
I never thought that! Blend it! BLEND IT!!!
After a solid one minute of mental blending and purging any wrongdoing, I collect myself and continue on with my exploration of the internet and I spot a logo that is fairly similar to my most-used browser, ‘Bing’, however, this one is a, ‘B’ instead of a ‘b’ and it’s called Bong instead of Bing.
I’m instantly met with an ad that read, ‘Top 10 Reasons to switch over from Bong to Googol,’ I figure out that this world is already possibly better than my old one since I was an avid Bing user and it’s nice for it to finally get the attention it deserves, however, I also recognize that something is very strange with this world and that being isn't that the reverse of my old world?
Whatever...I’m sure it doesn’t matter anyway, like who really cares about which browser is popular.
Alright, let's see what is the first thing I want to look up?
Ah...I know! How does this world look like (aka) The Actual World Map, that's useful to know.
I look it up on Bong and soon get my answer when I see an image of the earth, however, this one looks slightly different even in my black and white vision.
It wasn’t a coincidence when the checkers were squares, the keyboards were reversed, why Bong is better than Googol, and most important of all why this world is called, Thrae.
This whole planet is flipped on its head, literally, like an actual literally!!!!
[https://render.fineartamerica.com/images/rendered/default/flat/beach-towel/images/artworkimages/medium/1/the-inverted-world-frans-blok.jpg?&targetx=-1&targety=0&imagewidth=952&imageheight=476&modelwidth=952&modelheight=476&backgroundcolor=66642D&orientation=1&producttype=beachtowel-37-74]
Water is Land
Land is Water
Thrae isn’t "Earth" spelled backward but it's close.
Actually, there might be some super deep meaning behind the name if whatever God chose to use it? A God couldn’t have just misspelled "Earth" backward.
...
Right?!