I'm not entirely sure what just happened, but there's a rather large creature with the top half of a human in front of me, and it just screamed, and Dylan screamed quite a bit louder, and I'm not sure whether I should attack or not.

Rubbing its rough hair between its claws (obviously intended for combat), the creature sighs. "Hmmm... existing is stranger than I thought."

It's a very familiar voice.

[Joule?]

The creature promptly looks at me and smiles. "Sorry about this, Null, but I've always wanted to do this."

Scooping me up in her remarkably strong arms, she pulls me in tightly and squeezes. I'm not really sure what to do. It's definitely Joule, but why is she acting like this?

[...If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing?]

Still holding me, she responds, "This is called a hug. You give it to people that you like to make them feel better."

[I'm not a person, though.]

She holds me in front of her and smiles. "There's a difference between a person and a human."

I don't know what to think of that.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Meanwhile, the three humans are freaking out. After all, I do still have the gold.

Joule turns as Baby jumps towards her, and she flinches away, her centipede half smashing into him and throwing him away.

[Everyone, please calm down. This is Joule. Apparently she has a physical form now.]

Dylan switches from terrified to excited in about half a second.

"That's possible? But how is she - sorry, how are you doing that?"

Joule seems happy to answer. "Null's powers have improved to the point that I can manipulate Void into solid objects. Your illusions are going to be quite the tough opponent now, by the way." She adds the last part while looking at me happily.

It's... disorienting. I'm so used to hearing Joule rather than seeing her that this new form is more than a little strange. There's one especially important question...

[Why a centipede and not an ant?]

Joule's face turns red for some reason, and she stutters weirdly. What happened during the upgrade?

"Oh, well - I just thought that - I don't know, centipedes are cool too, right? I mean - would you be okay with an ant?"

I walk over to her slowly and place a thin leg on her main body, and her redness intensifies.

[Whatever happened during the upgrade, you don't have to tell me.]

Her face blanks. "What?"

[I get that waking up in a new body can be weird, and I'm here if you need to talk about it.]

"That's not really what I-"

[Whatever form you end up having works fine - you don't have to change it for me if you don't want to.]

"I wasn't asking-"

[Both halves of you are quite pretty as they are.]

Her face totally blanks for some reason and she dissipates into void energy, seeping back into me.

Turning to the humans, I ask, [What was that all about?]

Dylan looks frustrated that the construct vanished, Baby looks as confused as I feel, and the cat-human (who I've learned the name of) just has her head in her hands. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. Why do humans have so many different reactions to one thing?