Tryout for Multi Mutant Kit

[Unleashed Squiid]

Username: Unleashed Squid // Name: Charlotte // Gender: Female

This story remains in character to this kit's parents and world

Original Post

[Unleashed Squiid]

(459/500)

I am an anomaly. Something that deviates from what is expected. Looking back on all of the things I have been through, I have learned that my differences are not something I should fear. I am more than fear, I am greater than fear, and fear can no longer hold me back. But that is not how things used to be, for there was a time when my mistakes held me tighter than wrought iron and kept me from being who I was always meant to be. From the start I always wanted to be a hero, and letting go was what finally drew my fate towards me. I am about to share a story, but first, let me share my thoughts about myself, about how I feel concerning these mutations of mine -- my ears, my legs.

From a young age, children will always do what instinct tells them to do, to make friends, create groups, and obtain opinions. The typical traits observed would change one's life right from the beginning. Observation would lead young kits to believe that there is a 'standard' for everything they see, such as a standard hair style, a standard height and weight. They adapt to others to make themselves fit into this category of 'standard,' changing themselves by doing so. They adapt the method by which they eat and the way they speak to what they perceive as 'normal' just so they could fit in with the others who also want to fit in. The problem is, this makes everything 'normal' not so normal. It makes it overdone and bland. Isn't that really the anomaly here?

To a young creature, differences are foreign, and foreign things inspire fear. Fear leads to rejection, and with all of the differences that I had, it meant I was cast aside right from the beginning. I knew from the first time I was rejected that I could never let that hold me back. Though I knew I would never be right in the eyes of my peers, I also knew that I had the ability to be right with myself. In the end, I told myself, I am me. I may not be perfect, but I could still love who I was. And even though I may be different, who am I to care?

I started searching inwards for something greater than what I found in the other kalons around me. I developed imaginary friends and an imaginary world to compensate for the childhood I had been rejected from. Further, though my mutations are different, I love them. It definitely was hard to do so after the snide, cutting comments of my peers, but they are unique. I am unique, and there is nothing wrong with that.

[Unleashed Squiid]

1457 words

"I'm going on an adventure," Charlotte yelled, as she burst out of her home. A crayon-drawn map and plastic sword in hand, she dived into the underbrush and stabbed at imaginary pirates and swordsman who dared to stand in her way. The young creature raced far into the farmlands which loomed in the back of her property until her home was no more than a tiny speck.

When the kit became bored of her game, she sat in the tall grass which lined the dry ground. Farmlands always seemed to calm her down whenever she was troubled by any anxieties. There, nobody called her odd or strange because of her differences.

A gentle breeze ruffled the tips of grass, and Charlotte's eyes traced the motion that the wind made in the plants. Then she caught sight of it -- a figure was racing through the grass!

Charlotte's curiosity got the best of her, and she decided to follow it. She got up and slunk through the grass until she was close behind the creature. She thought she had been stealthy and was well hidden, but then the other kalon stopped. To Charlotte's horror, it spun around and looked her right in the eyes.

Charlotte jumped back, shaking from fear. Her legs became so unstable that she nearly toppled over.

"Who are you?" the indigo kalon asked. Her voice was sharp and seemed to be layered with many emotions, as if it had different meanings to it. As she kept her eyes on Charlotte, she shifted a leather satchel over her shoulder.

"I -- um -- I...." Charlotte couldn't find any words. Her voice was too shaky and her brain was now clogged with adrenaline.

"Hey, kid, it's all right. Calm down."

"My name's Charlotte. I'm a --" She paused as there was a tiny click-like sound in the distance that sounded like metal being pulled from metal.

The other kalon froze, ears cocked, for a fraction of a second, and then shouted, "Run!"

Without warning, some kind of object was thrown, and Charlotte instantly knew it was not good. Her eyes followed it as it flew towards her, almost in slow motion, and then hit the ground with a clank. There was no time to react. A cloud of gas filled the air, causing her limbs and body to collapse to the floor. Her mind, however, stayed active, and as the gas cleared, she noticed the other kalon lying in the grass a few paces away, looking equally terrified.

A different kalon stepped through the tall grass. Her face bore no emotions whatsoever, but her eyes burned with an icy hatred. Charlotte felt her gaze pass over her, and she shuddered.

"Eden," said the sunset-colored kalon, coldly, "did you really have to bring a kit into this?"

"She isn't with me," growled Eden. Her eyes were equally as cold as the sunset kalon's. "I have not met her before now, and I don't know her."

"Nice try, but I know that you are deceitful." The sunset kalon bent down to examine Charlotte, who helplessly lay in the dirt. "You have picked the wrong side, my dear. You and your extra arms seem awfully familiar. Don't tell me you haven't worked with Eden before."

Charlotte was too terrified to feel the sting of that comment. "I -- I'm not with her though," Charlotte breathed. "She isn't lying." She winced, fearing the sunset-colored kalon who stood before her. "Please...."

"You too? Nothing more than a liar." The captor shook her head and looked down at the two kalons who lay before her. "I guess we'll just have to see where lying gets you then, won't we?"

Charlotte watched, defenselessly as the kalon pulled out a vial of gas. The last thing Charlotte was aware of was the puff of a grey cloud as it engulfed her body.


********

"If it weren't for you, I might've been able to do it...." Charlotte woke with a start. Her memories began filtering back to her. She looked at Eden. "If it weren't for you and your little spider legs ... if you looked any different I could have gotten away with it."

The words hit Charlotte like a spear in the chest. She already felt terrible about the whole ordeal, and the insult had hit her right in her most sensitive place. She didn't respond, but her emotions got the better of her and she began to cry.

"Look, I'm sorry!" she yelled. "Is that what you want? I'm sorry I ruined your plan, and I'm sorry that I'm not perfect. I wasn't able to choose how I looked, okay! Don't you think I've heard it before?"

Eden stared at the ground. "Kid, I didn't mean that, I'm sorry. It's just that another kalon I used to work with had an extra set of arms too. He was my old companion, so it looked suspicious. Why are you so sensitive about your arms?"

"Nobody likes them."

"Well, I think they're cool. My ol' buddy had a pair of extra arms, and he could do all sorts of tricks. He would always keep the guards distracted with only two of his arms, and then work behind his back with the other two. Nobody ever caught onto his tricks. We got out of all sorts of situations that way. He was the best!" She looked to the ground. "But he's not here anymore."

"Oh," Charlotte was intrigued. For a moment she thought that her extra set of arms sounded pretty cool. She liked the idea of outsmarting enemies with them. Then the idea came to her; she suddenly thought of a way to escape.

"Where are we?" she enquired.

Eden blinked, surprised. "On her ship. Ciel would never leave behind a smuggler."

"You're a smuggler?" Charlotte asked. Pieces began to fit together in her mind. Of course. The satchel. The reason she was running.
The hatred between the two. It all made sense now. "What did you steal?"

Eden sighed. "I stole her potion-making book. It would have saved so many people if I could have gotten away with it ... and I was so close too. A marketplace was not too far from where we were captured ... that's where I needed to go. Now, I guess I'll never make it."

"There must be a way to get out of here." Charlotte studied Eden's face, and was greeted with a stone-like expression.

"I dunno, kid."

"Well I have an idea...."


********



Charlotte ran with all her might, and to her excitement, one of her arms carried the potion-making book. Part of her wondered how Ciel could have fallen for such a simple ruse. The other part just wanted to get the heck out of the place. Charlotte had done exactly as Eden had said her old friend had done. She had distracted Ciel with two of her arms while with her other two arms she snatched the book out of the satchel and hid the evidence.

Pride glowed in her chest. She couldn't help but feel that her mutations were awesome! She loved having extra limbs to guide and help her. Suddenly Charlotte didn't care what the others said about her because she loved these differences. She loved them more than anything, and she wouldn't give them up for the world.

Charlotte and Eden raced out of Ciel's ship, and they ran for miles through the farmlands to the brink of the marketplace. Eden looked at her new acquaintance and smiled. "Kid, you surprised me. I don't even know what to say. You're a hero."

Charlotte felt tears gathering in her eyes, but she held them back. This time she felt stronger. She smiled, too. The world was at her fingertips now. She no longer carried such a big anxiety or weight on her shoulders. She felt free.

"All right, kiddo, I'm gonna go, now. You run along home -- I bet your parents are worried sick. Just remember that your differences aren't a bad thing ... they make you unique."

She winked, and then turned away. She set off to deliver the journal.

Charlotte stood there for a long while, watching as Eden vanished into the crowd. She had been through so much over the last two days. A part of her was happy that everything was over, but another part, a call for adventure, remained deep within her mind. Though this journey was over, the kalon knew it was not the end. The world was so vast, and there was so much that she had yet to do. But first, Charlotte would go home. After all, she was only a kit. The future was something meant for tomorrow.

[Unleashed Squiid]

124 words

Adventure stirs in Charlotte's blood, and the journey that she embarked on as a kit was something she would never forget. Every so often, a gust of wind or a landscape which she wanders upon throws her back to the two days that she spent on Ciel's ship or to the feeling of energy that surged through her when she snatched up the journal.

Charlotte still feels the adrenaline and the excitement of her experience, and she often thinks back to that day where she accidentally fell upon a life-changing adventure. But it was also something more than that. What this journey also provided was a realization: just because you are different doesn't mean you aren't as valuable. It taught her to love herself for who she is.

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Art + Writing made by me
Kit made by naumachy