Draggian Universe

-- Subject Report: Chaos Entity 0.1 -- DW ("Distortion World") --
-- Xiampe --

Date -- 1 month post-containment

I'm going to break professionalism for a moment here. (Note: delete this section of the file before sending to Xyra) When I first signed on with Limina to form an agency studying the dimensional rifts, I never planned for actually encountering a creature from the other side of one of said rifts. I knew, rationally, that it was hypothetically possible, but I thought that a dimension of such high and volatile animum would not be capable of supporting life. I also wanted to believe that all of the tales that we dissected in school as thoroughly misjudging Likoa's motivations that described her dimension as a world of infinite pain infested with many-limbed creatures that longed to feast on Dragites' animum and flesh were just that: myths. According to Xyra, they are. There would be no way for ancient Dragites to have encountered extradimensional creatures to inspire the stories of chaos entities. Until a recent spike in dimensional animum levels that happened to correspond to my Lifuir "totally coincidentally", dimensional rifts would be impossible due to the massive amounts of animum required to breach dimensional barriers. Xyra left this out of her reports to the others (to be honest, I'm surprised at her discretion in this regard), but she believes that if the holes in my face and back are some sort of entrance to the void in which Veritas and Distortion sit, that the opening and widening of the Shadowlawn rift and consequent weakening of dimensional boundaries is my fault. The Void, being disconnected from either dimension, is not encoded for either and the more similar the two dimensions' animum is, the more likely that they will develop links to each other. Eventually, as more animum from the Void enters the system through me and more animum is exchanged between Veritas and Distortion through rifts, the two dimensions will completely merge, resulting in the end of the world as we know it from us being invaded by creatures of substantially higher animum than anything in our world, and possibly even Likoa herself.

Subject DW is a creature that appears to be made entirely of a bizarre form of solid animum. Its body is entirely black in color save an array of white spiral-shaped markings. It measures roughly 0.5 meters tall and 0.6 meters wide in its cephalothorax and possesses 8 legs that each possess articulation comparable to that of a Sluslis' spine, each longer than the cephalothorax. Each leg is tipped with a clawed hand possessing 5 digits including an opposable thumb, each longer than the base of the hand. All Draggan life possesses either 3 or 4 digits, emphasizing that the creature is of extradraggan origin. Digits display comparable articulation to those of Dragites and the subject can easily pick up objects, save difficulties in not puncturing said objects with its claws. Each of its two eyes is nearly entirely red in sclera, pupil, and iris and its eyes take up roughly 25% of the area of the face. Subject shows no difficulties in seeing in dark conditions, but complained of pain and difficulties seeing in full sunlight conditions. Subject possesses 3 mouths and no sign of nostrils. Based on testing, it does not appear to possess a sense of smell. Its primary mouth stretches the entire width of its face and onto the sides of its head, can open to a depth of over 100 centimeters, and is filled with 3 layers of teeth, all of which appear to be pointed. Subject has not been observed to eat. I theorize that it sustains itself with environmental animum alone. Its two secondary mouths sit in pointed, elongated ear-like structures on either side of its head, of which they take up the entire width. All of the subject's mouths are capable of vocalization. Its signals of distress and noises it makes while playing are near the lowest pitches that Dragites can hear and release at high enough volume to vibrate the ground beneath it. The shockwaves it releases when extremely stressed are not audible, but release enough vibrations to cause tremors capable of lifting asphalt from a parking lot. When attempting to verbally communicate with Dragites, it makes higher-pitched and softer vocalizations, but these do not appear to be its natural vocal range. Presumably it is modulating its voice in order to be audible without causing pain.

Subject displays psychology roughly equivalent to a young child aged 5-7, including demonstrating a capability for pretend play and imagination, basic theory of mind including comforting others who appear sad and recognizing emotions in Dragite faces, intense curiosity, and age-appropriate errors in logical thought. As I suspect to be the case in Dragite children, the subject does not sleep or express any signs of fatigue, but it has been instructed to entertain itself quietly while we sleep, which it usually abides by. Sayendrix has been providing it with education in Draggan customs and written language, which it appears to be apprehending at speeds equivalent to Dragite students without previous education.

Despite not yet being capable of reading or writing in Draggan, it comprehends spoken language. It does not appear that it actually comprehends auditory signals; even though it displays physical responses to sounds, it speaks to Dragites via some form of telepathy. Those who "hear" its statements have said that it felt like a "voice in their head" external to their consciousness and sounded like a young female of indeterminate species. Upon asking the subject what it heard when we talked, it said that it "didn't understand the sounds, but could hear [our] thoughts" and that we appeared to be communicating in the same terms as its species. This implies that its telepathy "translates" its mental processes into equivalent ideological terms and edits out noise in the same vein as augmentation systems. As remarkable as this is, it raises concerns about the legitimacy of the information the subject has provided. For example, it references having a "mommy" and stated that it identified as female when asked, but lacks sexual organs completely, which combined with its animum body, suggests that its species does not reproduce sexually and that its family dynamics and concept of gender would be significantly different from those of Dragites. I have not conducted studies on its vocal cords, but Sayendrix has pointed out that seeing as its head anatomy is reasonably comparable to that of some mammalian Dragite species and it is capable of producing sounds within Dragite vocal ranges, it is possible that it could speak a modified form of Draggan Common. She has expressed interest in trying to teach the subject to speak, which I have supported. If we can teach Subject DW to speak, we should be able to get more accurate information about Distortion without any telepathic translation by letting the subject express itself in its own words. Sayendrix has also been teaching it the basics of visual art and Draggan writing in hopes that it could write or draw scenes from its home dimension. She attempted to give the subject a computer under the assumption that typing would perhaps be easier given its hand anatomy, but its animum outflow rapidly overloaded the computer's electrical systems. It is capable of handling battery-powered mobile devices for short periods, but rapidly drains their batteries. Sayendrix occasionally gives her phone to it so it can watch videos or play games. Research is being conducted with other Limina teams on whether it would be possible to custom-make a unit that would be compatible with DW's animum outflow and anatomy.

As well as releasing higher animum outflow than any known Draggan lifeform, DW's manipulation of its animum is, too, unprecedented. While it appears that its capability to release shockwaves stems from its physical body, it displays other anomalous abilities that are only explainable via animum manipulation. It is unknown whether it would have had these powers in its home dimension or if they are a result of differences in encoding between Veritas and Distortion. Its abilities include changing the size of its physical body, including rendering itself as much as 10% to 200% the size in which we first encountered it. When it is smaller in size, its other animum abilities are more potent, suggesting that the animum it manipulates and that which makes up its physical body stem from the same source even if they are not in precisely the same format. It is also capable of opening small spacial rifts with a range of up to 5 kilometers. Its main mode of transportation is running using its legs, but it opens rifts in the event that it feels threatened. For example, it warped itself into the bandshell at Qidzha Park, roughly 3.5 kilometers from WHAT HQ, upon being frightened by the sound of a passing motorcycle. Luckily, it quickly returned to HQ and was not seen by any patrons. In another incident, it was exploring equipment in Hurika's lab. When Hurika discovered and became justifiably cross with it, it transported itself to the top of a tree in the vacant lot behind our campus. Sayendrix has been attempting to train it to not use its rifts under the explanation that we don't want it to get hurt or lost, but thus far, these efforts have not yielded much success.

The subject is relatively cooperative for investigations. Sayendrix has explained to it what Hurika and I seek to do: we are performing tests to make sure that DW is healthy and seeking the information we do in hopes that one day, we can get it back home. It displays difficulties staying on task, but accepts having tests performed on its animum and physical capabilities as long as it is provided incentives, such as stuffed toys, which it prefers, or being allowed to play a game or watch a video on Sayendrix's phone. Recently, it has developed a fascination with Dragite and Insulan historical monarchy and regularly role-plays as a "princess" presiding over a court of stuffed toys. Researchy has also introduced it to Pokémon after it asked about the origin of its nickname, along with other children's media of Insulan origin. I have requested that Researchy stop doing this so as to not contaminate the subject's view of Dragga with foreign concepts. She has adamantly refused, claiming that courtesy of the introduction of augmentation circuits, Insulan ideas are just as much a part of the modern cultural landscape as those indigenous to Dragga. Knowing that this is one of her most passionate viewpoints, I did not debate her. As Researchy explained to me concerning the origin of the subject's name, as well as being similar in connotation to the Draggan term used to describe Likoa's dimension, "Distortion World" also refers to an alternate dimension from the Pokémon universe. Upon first seeing the creature, its shadowy appearance and association with spacetime rifts reminded Sayendrix of a character named Giratina which apparently rules over said alternate dimension. The subject has vastly enjoyed its exposure to Pokémon, being astounded with the variety of lifeforms displayed in the fictional world and with it containing characters with powers like its own. It displays a similar fascination with the diversity of Draggan life, and has commented on how our world is much more colorful and full of life than its home dimension. It has expressed a desire to meet more Draggan life in person, especially adopting an Animite pet. Thus far, we have refused under fear that DW making close contact with any creature without the level of adaptation to high animum levels we have would result in its outflow overloading their body and that as well as recklessly endangering the unfortunate lifeform, seeing its new friend explode would traumatize DW. We have attempted to sate its curiosity about Draggan life using videos and representative toys, yielding marginal success.

All personnel other than myself have developed strong emotional attachment to DW. This may be the result of animum interference, but based on interviewing the other staff members, they have simply stated that they find DW's childlike behavior endearing or on some level relate to her combination of curiosity and overwhelmment at being in an unfamiliar world, comparing it to their experience living away from home for the first time as college students. Hurika cites DW reminding xem of children they tutored while in secondary school and Dayle states that both the subject's enthusiasm and destructive behavior when upset reminds them of their younger brother. Sayendrix considers herself a parental figure to the subject and while Researchy declined to comment, she appears to perceive it as a playmate and enthusiastic party to her expositions about Insulan media and as a mind she can mold in her own obsessive image. I myself can not deny that some of the subject's behavior is endearing, but I am too preoccupied with the implication that not only does Distortion contain sentient life as theorized by the myths about Likoa, making me continue to speculate on the malevolent Incarnation's literal existence, they are capable of massive destruction. Somehow, the fact that DW is simply a child both scared and enthused by its new surroundings and does not truly understand what it is doing is even more distressing than the thought of an intentional invasion. If these creatures are not forces of evil, but rather refugees from a broken world, are they not as much victims of this situation as we are? Given these conditions, despite my distaste for Distortion, neutralizing them does not feel ethical. But given the magnitude of DW's capability for destruction even as a child, I am unsure if coexistence with these creatures would be possible, especially given the likelihood that soon, we will be faced with stronger and perhaps less innocent creatures. This new development in the matter of the Shadowlawn rift distresses me greatly. The time to analyze whether it is harnessable as an energy source is over. We need to focus our attentions on figuring out how to close the rift and send anything else that emerges back through. The economic potential is irrelevant; if we do not take action posthaste, Dragite lives will be lost.

Report concluded.

Stats

Name: Clearly has one that can not be expressed in Draggan phonetics. Nickname is DW, abbreviation of Distortion World.
Species: Something that appears to be made entirely of solid animum. We're calling it a "chaos entity" for now after mythological creatures from Likoa's dimension.
Gender: Stated that she was female when asked, but since subject's telepatic messages appear to be "translated" into Dragite terms, it is unknown if this is truly the term she would have used in Distortion or the closest translation in Dragite terms.
Pronouns: she/her or it/its
Age: Chronological age is unknown. More data is needed on how time passes in Distortion. Appears to have roughly the personality of a young child, age 5-7.
Abilities: Subject displays a variety of powers including changing its size, releasing shockwaves capable of tearing apart buildings and causing tremors, and teleportation through what appear to be small spacial rifts with a range of up to 5 kilometers. This suggests that its animum levels are substantially higher than any entity of Veritan origin. Based on readings, it may not have a "soul" in the sense that Dragites do. Rather, animum courses through and makes up its entire body. Whether there is a difference between the animum it uses to form its body and to power its abilities remains to be determined. More research is needed.

Reference - Updated 11/01/2022

Art

By Enforcer

By Others

If you'd like to draw DW via a request or trade, contact me using one of the outlets on the homepage.

Files

FILE: Discovery

This account of the EX Raid and DW's appearance was taken from a text file on Sayendrix's computer. I initially requested permission to view the file from her directly. She denied, so I had to access it via the computer network. The violation of personal privacy led her to forego speaking to me for a week, but this is a matter of scientific interest and dimensional security. I consider myself thoroughly justified in this regard.

Rain that was a maximum of 60% liquid echoed off the roof of the WHAT building as it fell. Given the cold, miserable conditions and the unfortunate fact of us being descended from ectothermic ancestors, we were running the heating systems at full blast. Despite that, we remained sluggish and generally disgruntled. Despite the sleet and my sorry emotional and physical states, I still needed Deoxys and did not know when I'd next get an invite, so I was about to head to Shadowlawn Park for an EX Raid.

"Yo, Xi! Can I take the W.H.A.T truck? I'm heading to a raid."

"You're using the containment vehicle to go to a raid? Are you crazy? We have to keep W.H.A.T's operation completely confidential. Also, have you seen the recent readings? Animum outflow from the Shadowlawn rift is continuing to increase. We could start getting incursions of extradimensional entities in Eyendaru any time now and the park's only 5 kilometers from the rift."

"Uh...Xi? Number 1, these people aren't really in tune with reality to begin with, seeing as they're using gas and data to play a smartphone game based on a franchise created for Insulan children. Number 2, even if they were, there's enough weird stuff on the web that they're probably gonna assume it's some sort of alternate reality game or something. And Number 3, if we were trying to be confidential, I think we failed as soon as Xyra labeled our building. Also, no smaller rifts have opened yet, and from what Hurika said, if they did, it's unlikely they'd stay long enough for anything to come out."

"Fine. Go do your raid. Just bring your protective equipment just in case."

I don't feel the need to describe the raid in detail, but it went pretty well. At Xiampe's insistence, I was running a portable animum detector on my phone along with Pokémon Go. I didn't expect to find anything and the numbers remained normal throughout the raid, but just after I had finished catching my Deoxys, the levels spiked and continued climbing. Most everyone had already left courtesy of the weather and very few other than the most dedicated players had bothered to show up in the first place, but as soon as levels rose, I put on my protective outfit, activated its animum shielding functions, and posted an update to the groupchat instructing anyone who was still at the raid to evacuate.

About 10 minutes after the first animum spike, the wind and rain intensified as a rift opened in the sky, its jagged edges making it feel like someone had ripped a hole in the fabric of reality and the near-blinding light emanating from it staining everything an ominous crimson. A creature fell out of it and let out a distorted screech, releasing shockwaves which knocked down trees and playground equipment and ripped up the pavement from the road. The creature was completely dark in color to the point that it absorbed light rather than reflecting it. It had eight unnaturally long legs, no visible torso, and what looked like ear flaps jutting off from its massive head contained massive, toothy mouths almost as unsettling as its primary mouth, which stretched all the way across its head in an unbroken smile filled with several layers of pointed teeth. The dimensional rift closed, leaving me alone with the creature. It was clearly extremely powerful and was giving off waves of animum I couldn't quite identify, but wasn't particularly large. With its eight legs fully extended, it stood about as high as my waist. I may not have known this creature's species, but it was clear what its screeching was intended to communicate.

It was crying for its mother.

I approached the creature, which had curled into something resembling a fetal position with all of its legs covering its head. Its screeching had somewhat lowered in volume. While still painful to listen to, it wasn't generating shockwaves anymore and the creature seemed reasonably safe to approach. As I slithered toward it, the creature turned a glowing red eye to look at me with some combination of fear and curiosity.

"Hi! My name is Sayendrix. Who are you?"

The creature unfolded some of its legs from around its head to turn its full attention to me. It let out a curious trill and continued staring at me. It didn't show any signs of fear or aggression I recognized, so I decided to just hang out next to it until it decided if it wanted to interact with me. I pulled out my phone and browsed to my favorite webcomic, resuming from where I'd left off the previous night. The creature appeared to be interested in it and materialized behind me appearing to try to read it over my shoulder. It then made a look of what was likely confusion, although it was difficult to tell due to its lack of eyelids. Maybe it had never seen written language before? Even if it had, it probably couldn't read Draggan. It let out another trill and pressed the home button of my phone, opening a folder filled with games. After doing this, it spoke directly into my mind, where it sounded like a small child.

"Mommy dropped me off for a playdate. Play with me?"

Initially alarmed, I realized that if the creature displayed intelligence and was willing to work with me, I might be able to get information from it about where it came from and what it was, and hopefully get it back to wherever it came from unharmed. I contemplated calling Xi, but decided against it, figuring that he'd decide to neutralize it after the damage it did at the raid. It couldn't stay here where people could see it, though, so I decided I'd sneak it into W.H.A.T HQ through the back door and see what I could learn from it about how to take it back home.

"I'll play with you. Can we go back to my house first, though?"

The creature let me pick it up and lift it into the back seat of the W.H.A.T truck. It was far heavier than its size would suggest. I threw out my shoulder lifting it. Its texture was unusual too. Rather than resembling Dragite skin, it felt like something in between the carapace of an insect and only mostly solidified mud. On the ride back to W.H.A.T HQ, I didn't want to risk it getting scared and starting to screech again, so I gave it my phone and pulled up some cartoons for it to watch, which it seemed to enjoy. I pulled into the back lot of HQ and snuck it into my room, where it immediately began exploring my plush collection, letting out some rather cute high-pitched noises when looking at ones it liked. Figuring it was reasonably harmless and acclimated to its new environment, I decided to try talking to it again.

"Hi! What's your name?" The creature made a series of noises that weren't in any language I could identify. I couldn't address it as such, so started thinking up nicknames for it. My thinking was interrupted when the external animum alarm started blaring and Researchy, Hurika, and Xi all came into the room to see what was the matter. Xi was the first to question me.

"What is that and why is it in your room? We need to contain it; we don't know what this creature is capable of!" In retrospect, I probably should have expected this, but I fell back on maternal instinct.

"Not so loud! You'll scare her! Xi, I know you aren't going to like this, but this is DW. A rift opened at the raid and she came out. Please don't do anything drastic! She's friendly and sentient, and could give us some really useful insights on what she is and where she came from."

"Yeah, I know about the rift. The animum readings I got from the drones couldn't have corresponded to anything else. The entire park was destroyed, Sayendrix. Whether this creature intended to cause that damage or not, it's too dangerous for you to be treating like a child."

"I'm treating it like a child because it is one, Xi, and it needs a mother."

"I've told you repeatedly not to call me Xi. And why are you anthropomorphizing it? It's a destructive entity from another dimension capable of causing disastrous events. For all you know, it could be the start of an invasion! And why are you calling it DW? Your choice of nomenclature aside, even if it does need a mother, what makes you think you're qualified to care for it? We have no experience with any lifeforms remotely like this."

"Again with the End of All! Not everything's the end of the world, Xi. And it's short for Distortion World after where she presumably came from. And even if it is the sign of worse things to come, doesn't it make more sense to study it and maybe find ways to prevent the end or coexist with these creatures if there are more of them? And who the heck would be more qualified to care for it than us? It's not like its mother is coming through that rift and we're probably the single organization that's most equipped to deal with foreign animum. It's what we were founded for, after all."

I turned to DW, who was hiding behind me, clearly nervous from the argument. I needed to calm her down before she started screeching again, and fast. I suppose I didn't know that she was a girl, but its telepathic voice sounded like a little girl so presumably that was how DW perceived herself.

"Do you understand how serious this situation is? We're dealing with a completely unknown entity here and you're here treating it like a doll! This isn't a game, Sayendrix. We're dealing with something that could destroy the world as we know it. We've got to prevent that, and letting it watch cartoons on your phone isn't going to do that. I agree with you about not destroying it right away, but we need to figure out what it is and how it works. We can do some behavioral experiments and analyze its animum emissions then dissect it."

"Even if it is to 'save the world', I'm not going to let you kill DW. She may be from another dimension, but she's a sentient being. She's a scared child in a world she doesn't understand. And speaking practically, if her mother's looking for her and might come through the next rift, we don't want to piss off an even more powerful entity. How can you look at that and only see something that needs to be destroyed? Even if it means the end of the world or my own death, I'm going to care for her as best I can until we can figure out how to send her home. And if I need to leave W.H.A.T to do that, so be it. It's her or me, Xiampe. And I'm totally okay with you doing research, but you need to treat her humanely and respectfully. What's it gonna be?"

"Fine. If that thing kills us all, know your maternal instincts are to thank. I hope you both have fun."