Username: Nutheart
Name: Europa- an ancient Greek name that means "wide faced"
Gender: Female
Personality: Europa is a very mothering RPW, always taking those smaller or younger than her under her protection. Given that she's very large...well, most other RPWs are smaller than her. She believes that others are good until proven otherwise...and one does not want to prove otherwise to her. For all her initial gentleness, Europa does not take much nonsense, especially if it concerns someone that she's currently watching over. Fortunately...avoiding her for long enough lets her temper die down fairly quickly, and she tends to have somewhat of a short memory for minor transgressions. The only way she will likely remember being wronged is if one is a repeat offender.
Given that Europa was only recently "released," she's a fairly functional RPW. She absolutely craves social interaction that she didn't have when she was younger, hence her motherly nature.
For some reason, she also balks and cowers at the simple sound of a clicker. A few clicks, and Europa will lie down and tremble, fairly opposite to her general towering stature, horned face raised challengingly.
Subject Designation: T817
Notes: Progressing faster than other subjects. Appears to be the first viable subject in the T Series. Prepare to hatch this one.
This was scribbled on a notecard propped up against an incubation chamber. There were other pods like it nearby, and not a single one was empty. Each contained what, at first glance, appeared to be the beginnings of a wolf pup. But upon closer examination, each had...several unique traits, be it mutated forelimbs or a fluked tail or ridiculously large, sharp teeth. The vast majority were also completely still.
But then there was T817. This pup had horns sprouting from its face, and the beginnings of a large frill. This one was larger than the others, and was actually moving, giving little kicks of its legs and twitches of its long, muscular tail. This one could easily be viable.
The researchers were currently applauding themselves. This was...a difficult project, to say the least. They'd found that there was not enough preserved DNA to bring back the dinosaurs themselves...but with enough effort and tweaking, they might be able to graft the genes onto another species...and, hey, why not make the new dinosaurs intelligent while they were at it? And thus the hybridization of dinosaurs and rainbow paint wolves had begun. Was it ethical? The outcry from the public would've been ridiculous...if they knew this was happening, anyway. This lab was known to mess with dino DNA, but they never made it clear exactly what they did. And who gave a yahoo about scraps of dino DNA when there was groundbreaking stuff in medicine that was made very public? Thus, T817 and its predecessors were created in peace.
Hatching did not mean literal hatching from an egg. It simply meant removing a subject from the incubator. Given the unstable nature of most of the subjects, hatching was a fairly rare event. T817 was gently lifted from its incubator, and mewled loudly upon being hit with cold air. T817 had fur, nut not much, as it was only fur that managed to grow between scales.
"Today is a good day," announced the researcher holding T817, struggling to keep a grip on the feisty baby. "Please welcome T817, our first viable triceratops hybrid!"
There was a loud cheer, and T817 only cried harder, whipping the researcher in the face with her tail, which not only smarted, but left a green smear on his face.
T817 was a good girl, they said. Good girl! They took her out of her room sometimes for checkups, and she had to sit still for pokes and owies. But it didn't hurt for long. She was tough! Tough good girl!
When she was not being poked and owied, she was usually alone, allowed to sleep and eat. But the best days were when one of the big wolves came into her room with toys! They tossed her toys and let her play. They went scritch scritch on their clipboard thingies for some reason, but T817 was too busy playing to care! The toys were so good! Good toys for a good girl, yes!
But sometimes it was hard. Sometimes a grown up tried to make T817 do something hard like say a thing called a sentence. She could say words just fine, thank you very much!
The researcher sat down with their clipboard, with T817 curled up in front of them. "Good morning, T817," they began. "We're going to have a little talk today."
"Play? Play?" T817 chirruped, sitting up and wagging her tail.
"No, we are talking," the researcher corrected. "Say 'Hello' for me, please."
"Play!" T817 demanded, looking disappointed and mildly annoyed now. She stomped a heavy paw down.
"Say 'Hello.'"
"Hello," T817 grumbled. "Play now!"
The researcher frowned, scribbled something, then looked back to T817. "Say 'How are you doing?'"
T817 let out a small frustrated growl. "Hello? Hello? Play now! Play now!" She stood up to her full height now, which was fairly impressive for such a young pup. Her tail lashed and she stared down the researcher, tipping her horned face slightly toward them.
They panicked, and fumbled for a small white thing in their pocket. "Bad girl!" they yelped, using the white thing to make weird clicking noises. The clicking caught T817 off-guard, as did "Bad girl!" But T817 was a good girl, everyone said!
Just as T817 calmed down in sudden sadness and confusion, she found herself being lightly hit with the clipboard before the researcher sprinted for the door. She lay on the floor, not moving for a good while after the incident.
The researchers were a bit confused. She hadn't been hit nearly enough to do any damage (although they did scold the wolf who hit her).
Over several months they attempted to get T817 to talk in more than sentence fragments. Whether she was simply incapable or if she was consciously refusing to cooperate was anyone's guess. But as time went on, T817 got progressively more aggressive, and she started holding grudges against the researchers who tried to make her converse multiple times. They were running out of professionals.
So eventually they got desperate. They sent in a new intern that T817 had never seen before, equipped with instructions and a file to fill out.
The intern entered the room, a bit taken aback by the size of T817. She was informed that the hybrid was merely a pup, but she looked more like a teenager in size. This would be interesting.
"Good girl..." she murmured nonthreateningly as she made her way to her seat. T817 was already suspicious, seeing her visitor sitting in The Seat, and she attempted to slink away until the intern called. "Oh T817, can you come over here, please?"
T817 reluctantly turned and sprawled herself at the intern's feet, refusing eye contact and not reacting to being nudged with a foot. The intern let out a small sigh.
"Hi, T817. I'm your friend! We're just going to get to know each other, all right?"
Something in the intern's voice was...different, compared to everyone else who sat in The Seat. T817 slowly sat up, finally meeting the intern's eyes.
"Feeling better?" the intern asked, smiling a little.
The researchers were wowed by the intern's success with T817. Not once did she ever have to pull the dreaded Clicker to subdue the hybrid, and now when other researchers came in to leave food for her, T817 would demand that "Friend" would come in and play with her. The intern found herself getting rapidly promoted to a fully, paid researcher, and often got pats on the back. Her unofficial nickname around the lab was "T817's Friend," usually said amidst giggles from the other researchers.
She felt like the only one who took the nickname very seriously and straight to heart. She was the hybrid's best friend now.
Through their meetings, she would talk extensively with T817. As her success became more well-known, she was allowed to deviate from instructions and do whatever she wanted, as long as T817 kept progressing. She started bringing in books and toys for her, the same kinds that normal pups played with and read. T817 was a pup, after all.
T817 actually advanced really quickly. It seemed that she was far more advanced then she had been willing to let on with the others. She was actually hard-pressed to keep T817's appetite for learning satisfied. She started bringing in chapter books.
For some reason, T817 seemed especially enchanted by the mythology books.
Of course, she always asked how things were pronounced. "Greek names are silly," she once commented to her Friend.
Well, she seemed to think one was really pretty, for whatever reason.
Her Friend found herself giggling a little as T817 sat curled up with a book, repeatedly murmuring "Euroooooopaaaaaa. Europa!"
"You seem to like that name a lot, T817," she commented as she contained her giggles.
"Yeah!" the hybrid agreed, enthusiastically (and comically) nodding her large, horned head. "It's fun to say and....wasn't she really pretty? So pretty a cow wanted to kiiiiiss her, oooh!" T817 burst into a fit of giggles.
"Well, first of all, that cow was the god Zeus," her Friend gently corrected. "Second of all...yes, she was."
T817 paused for a moment. "Am I pretty like Europa?" she finally asked.
Her Friend felt a little something inside her gently break at that question. She hesitated a moment, composing herself, then looked her charge in the eyes.
"You are Europa."
Now when researchers came in to feed her, or when they did checkups on her, T817 demanded that they call her Europa for whatever reason.
When asked why, she would simply bellow, "I AM EUROPA!"
Europa's Friend was filling out paperwork one night when a fellow researcher approached her. One of her supervisors.
"I'd like to ask you some questions about some...concerning behaviors that have become apparent in Subject T817."
Ah. Of course it was about Europa.
"T817 has stopped responding to her designation, and she is beginning to act out badly during routine examinations. If this continues, we may be forced to take...measures ensuring that she does not become any more unsafe. Do you have any information on why T817 is misbehaving?"
Her Friend never even looked up from her papers when she deadpanned "I'm just as stumped as you are, sir."
Europa ran up to her Friend in excitement as soon as she stepped through the door. "Hi, Friend! Didja bring more cool stuff today? Oh...uh...why do you look so sad, Friend?"
Friend was looking very upset and she urgently bent down to whisper in Europa's ear. "This place is very bad for you, sweetie. I need to get you out so you can be safe and happy. Be quiet for me, okay, Europa? Good girl."
Friend opened the door and walked out, and Europa trailed after her, hardly daring to breathe. They were going on an adventure! This was just like one of her books...
Unfortunately, the joy of adventure was short-lived. Very short-lived.
Europa trotted eagerly behind her Friend until they got to the door. Friend cautiously opened it, releasing Europa outside. The hybrid let out a tiny whoop as she gingerly put a paw down in the grass, shivers running up her spine at the unfamiliar texture.
And then a loud bang rang out, and Europa whirled her head around in horror to see her Friend crumple in the grass with a yell.
"Run, Europa!" Friend croaked, eyes dull. "Run and never look back! You're free now..."
Europa so badly wanted to attack the security guard who did this...but as he approached and Friend went still, Europa reluctantly decided to obey her Friend's final request.
Europa made a break for it, running as fast as her bulky legs would carry her.
She heard cries of "SUBJECT T817 IS GETTING AWAY!" as she ran, tears welling in her eyes and messing up her vision.
She resisted looking back, and she managed to get away.
She was Europa, and she was free now.
WIP