Awakening 2 (2/2)

Strength 4 wasn't much in the grand scheme of things. But the skunk was light, and the teddy bear was a bit more solid than he looked, thanks to his Golem Body. So he was able to tug the skunk forward, up against the strings securing it to the fallen plank.

Which worked right until the tight loop of the string constricted around the skunk's body right at where the stick supporting its tail joined the stick supporting its back.

CRUNCH!

The teddy bear and the skunk froze in shock, as a bright red number '6' floated up into the air and dissolved.

The teddy bear was perplexed.

The skunk was panicking.

It had felt that, and knew on an instinctive level that particular sensation was bad. So when the teddy bear started pulling again, and the string ground against the broken join, the skunk lashed out blindly, assuming that something was attacking it. Blinded by its class screen and the persistent prompt, it flailed with its limp claws and open jaws against the teddy bear. But with what was essentially its spine coming apart, and its own abysmal strength score, it didn't manage to inflict any real damage. From nearby, the cat growled low in its throat as it watched the “fight”, tail lashing as red zeroes and ones floated into the air willy-nilly. Though the skunk's claws and teeth were sharp enough to tear at the teddy bear whenever it did manage a good hit, the teddy bear was endowed with an armor rating due to its golem nature that vastly reduced the damage.

The teddy bear, blinded by his own screen, and with his head at an angle that made it impossible to see that the skunk was trying to dig out his stuffing, had no idea the golem it was trying to free was resisting. All it knew was that something was attacking it. It came to the conclusion that whatever had trapped the skunk was trying to stop it getting free. The teddy bear found that idea unacceptable! The skunk was clearly trapped and it needed to be free! So to save it, the bear endured the unpleasant ripping, and pulled with all its might!

CRIK-SNAP!

The skunk went limp, as its animus fled. Golems could not die, but they could certainly break, and this one's animus had departed its shell. And for his part, the teddy bear's joy at freeing the skunk was tempered by the realization that it had freed only half a skunk. It put down the skunk's upper half, and stared at it. Maybe it was just resting?

Then new words crawled across its view, briefly interrupting the optional job prompt;

Strength +1

You have won the fight!

You are now a Level 2 Toy Golem!

All attributes +2

Suddenly, its head swam. Everything made more sense. Its thoughts swirled around it now, almost too much to manage. Some threshold had been passed, some bar invisible neatly limboed under, and concepts that were completely out of its reach now were a lot simpler now.

It looked down at the tail and lower half of the skunk, with sawdust spilling everywhere and wires and sticks poking out, where the strings had constricted and held it in place. And then it looked down at the upper half in its arms, sawdust leaking down to spill over the teddy bear's legs.

And it knew sorrow. It had done a bad thing, even if it couldn't figure out what exactly it had done. Slowly, carefully, the teddy bear put the upper half of the skunk next to its lower half, and tried to nudge them back together.

You are not a tanner. Seek out a trainer to obtain this job.

The letters flashed by—

—and the teddy bear still couldn't read them. 6 intelligence was better than the 2 it had started with, but it was still nowhere near what it needed to understand human speech, let alone read written words.

But since it didn't feel any better, and the skunk didn't start moving again, the little bear knew it had failed. Its ears drooped.

Then they perked up again, as a rumbling growl echoed through the room, and ended in a hiss.

You are affected by GROWL! You take sanity damage!

The teddy bear watched as a blue '6' floated up into the air, then turned, looking around until the gaps around the letters on that job prompt obstructing its vision revealed the coal-black, fuzzy form of Pulsivar, puffed up to twice his normal size, slit-pupiled eyes fixed upon the teddy bear's sawdust-covered form.

Pulsivar wasn't entirely sure of the particulars of this situation or whose fault it was, (definitely not his though,) but he was pretty godsdamned sure of two things;

One was that he was stuck in this workshop until his hoomin came back, so he couldn't escape.

Two was that he'd just seen that teddy bear straight up murder a fucker.

And to the cat, being in close proximity to such a threat was a call to action. His butt wiggled, his mouth stretched to show all of his needle-like teeth, and he hissed like a demon straight out of hell as he prepared to leap upon the biggest threat in the room...

???? Character Sheet

Spoiler: Spoiler

Name: ???? Age: 25 minutes

Jobs:

Greater Toy Golem Level 2

Attributes:

Strength: 7 Constitution: 18 Hit Points: 42/55 Armor: 10

Intelligence: 6 Wisdom: 13 Sanity: 13/19 Mental Fortitude: 0

Dexterity: 9 Agility: 8 Stamina: 27 Endurance: 20

Charisma: 4 Willpower: 12 Moxie: 16 Cool: 20

Perception: 7 Luck: 8 Fortune: 15 Fate: 2

Greater Toy Golem Skills

Adorable – Level 1

Gift of Sapience – Level NA

Golem Body – Level 2

Magic Resistance –Level 1