The Egg in Amalgama | World Anvil

The Egg

Thresh played by Kiki, Zydeca played by Orange
Thresh opens the door to his hive. They're both immediately hit with the scent of Grapes and Sopor Slime. It's extremely meticulously kept in there, barely any furniture except for a few chairs around a table and a couch in front of a giant screen connected to his husktop, like a television. "Here we are, then. Are you cold?" It's not cold. It's really not cold. He did not need to get 12 blankets.   Why did he get so many blankets. It's not like Zyd could necessarily refuse them, it's not like it wasn't a nice gesture. "YEah, it's pretty chilly in here. YOu highbloods sure like these temperatures, man, I know you've seen the shop. FReezing in there." It was usually cool, at most. No one would describe it as particularly cold. It thumped its bag down on the floor, allowing slothmom to crawl off of its horns and back into its arms.   "Ah see. Here you go." He took the blankets out and put them all onto the couch in a very welcoming manner. "Just wrap yourself up in these." Ominous old timey sounding music played from the direction of his room.   Zyd carried slothmom over to the blanket pile, taking a seat on the veritable mountain of comforters and afghans. Hell yeah I know fucking blanket synonyms. It set her down, letting her crawl to a comfortable spot off to the side of the couch. "YOur hive is always so empty, Thresh. I Mean, I know I keep a lot of random shit around, but there's practically an echo in here." It was half-burrowed into the blankets, only then noticing the music. Weird.   "There is an echo." There was in fact an echo. It was just barely noticeable. The music got considerably quieter. "I like having it clean like this. Then I know where everything goes. Have you seen my secret room?"   Zyd laughed from under the blankets. "LOok, the way you're phrasing it, it sounds like it's your dead body room or something." It tried to get back out of them, realizing one thing very quickly; "I Think I might need help here. PRetty sure I'm stuck, uh, tangled in these blankets." It was so many blankets.   "Wait. How much do you know?" It is now unclear if that is in fact a dead body room. He is obviously now hesitant to help Zyd get out of the blankets. "How's slothmom doing in there?"   "SHe's sitting there on the side." It managed to flail one arm out of the pile, to point to her. It had also managed to get even further into the pile, hopelessly stuck. "THresh, I legitimately need help getting out of here."   He held his hand out to it so that it could grab on and get pulled out. "You know I might have to kill you now, right? Do you want to see the secret room . . . ?" This very well might be a Dead Body Room.   It grabbed Thresh's arm to get pulled out, blinking for a second in the sudden light. Its glasses were definitely lost in the blankets, it would have to go find them later. "TCh, you wouldn't kill me. SUre, show me the secret room." It wasn't exactly worried, looking back to check on slothmom (who was just laying around, probably asleep.)   He yanked Zyd out, leaving a bunch of blankets to fall onto the floor. "You don't know that. C'mere, it's in my room. It's where I stash everything." He led Zyd towards the Ominous Music down the hall.   Zyd allowed itself to be led, giving slothmom a little wave as it exited her field of view. She was asleep anyway, but still. And off to the Ominous Music Room it went.   Thresh opened a door in the back of his room, well hidden by a bookshelf. The music seemed to be coming from that room, getting much louder once the door was actually opened. "In here!"   It noticed the fact that the room was hidden behind a bookshelf, which seemed, strange. Why would someone be playing music in a dedicated dead body room, though? If it was a dead body room, at least. It followed Thresh inside, of course, what else was there to really do?   The room was filled with jewelry and boxes filled with assorted... stolen things. The carpet was slightly torn up, and the room smelled strongly of metal. One of the boxes was glowing a very pleasant green. There were in fact, no dead bodies. In the corner, there was an old-timey record player playing weirdass music. Something was haunting about it.   Ignoring the torn up carpet (hey, it had seen worse flooring,) it mostly stood near the doorway, taking in the room. The jewelry, for one, and the unmarked yet clearly overflowing boxes stacked around the room. And the noticeable lack of dead bodies. It hadn't really thought that Thresh would hide any here-- in his own hive? Never. After a few seconds of simply surveilling the space, Zyd spoke. "SO, am I allowed to touch any of this, or are we on a strictly looking basis here?"   "You can touch whatever you want. I would just avoid the glowing boxes. You wanna know why this is the secret room? You wanna know what's secret about it?"   "YEah, sure, tell me what's secret about it. WAit, wait, lemme guess first. IS it the fact that all of this stuff is definitely stolen?" Zyd was being majorly sarcastic, while also beginning to go through one of the racks of jewelry. It wasn't going to take anything from the room, of course-- knowing Thresh, he might not notice at first, but definitely would mind once he found out.   "No, you dumbass. It's haunted." He was keeping a Watchful Eye over it, making sure nothing Accidentally Slips Into Its Pocket. "So, you know how I've never moved, right?"   "WEll, yeah, but I thought that was just because you're, well, one of the highest castes out there. GEtting rid of you could be sticky business." Zyd continued rifling through all the stuff in the room, making wondrous discoveries approximately every 5 seconds, and took a second to process the former part of Thresh's statement. "HAunted? YOu're shitting me, I know it."   "No, seriously. It's haunted. That's why I said don't look in the glowing boxes." It's probably not an actual ghost. Thresh might just have somebody living in his house.
"And, well, they can't get rid of me if they can't catch me. You know I can talk my way out of anything."   "THat's exactly what I'm saying, Thresh. YOu're practically untouchable." Zyd was drawing nearer to one of the glowing boxes, because telling it something is haunted is absolutely not a deterrent.
"HAunted, huh? LIke, with curses on it, or actual ghosts?"   "Actual ghosts, dude. I hear them when I'm trying to cook. I turned the music on so that maybe it'll lull them to sleep or something. Freaks me out." He thought to himself for a second. "Y'know, I don't think it's actually worked so far. I still hear them."   "I Mean, I can't hear anything, myself. MAybe they're targeting you specifically. OR you have rats or something, that might be it-- you said when you cook? YOu know they live in walls, right? THey're definitely in the kitchen." Zyd laughed, reaching to open one of the glowy boxes. "YOu probably have some valuable shit in here though, no doubt."   "oh my god-" he tries to stop Zyd before, but the box Opens Up. There's not actually anybody in there, but it seems like there's definitely been somebody living in there. Someone has 100% been living in these boxes. The glowing isn't actually from something radioactive, it's just straight up from a lantern. It seems like they've made a box fort and been living here for a while. Thresh is covering his eyes, assuming the worst. "Oh my god you let them out. You let out the ghosts."   This is a sign that Thresh should learn to clean sometimes.   "UH... Thresh?" That was a lantern. That was a lantern in a box. And apparently, a tunnel through the boxes too. "THis is just a box fort. ANd I doubt you built it. HOly fuck, man--" Zyd burst into even more laughter, "--there's probably someone living in there. OH, we have to find them. THis is gonna be great!"   He sat there with his hands still over his face for a minute. "There's.
Somebody living in my house? Someone, other than me.
Are you. Sure?"
He still seems too afraid to move his hands. "They've been able to... hear things?"   Zyd was already scrambling into the box tunnel. "DEfinitely someone here, dunno how far these tunnels might go. OH, man, these would be so useful for getting around, if they lead outside! HEre, come on, come on, WE gotta find this guy. Girl. Whatever." Fully in, it began crawling through, in the direction that appeared to lead further into the house.   It seemed there was an entire hidden basement opening after crawling for what seemed to be a century. Thresh was following behind cautiously, ready to square up to whatever he saw. "You see anything yet??"
The basement was filled with a bunch more stolen stuff. Probably stolen stolen stuff. All the stuff Thresh just assumed he had lost throughout the years. This may have been a meeting site of some sort, based on the way it was laid out. Knowing Thresh's lusus, before he had passed, this may have been where they met up after Crimes™️ to share the money and stolen goods.   "JUst more... stuff. THis place seems to go deep, though, this is excellent." Zyd emerged into the larger space under the tunnel, almost big enough for it to stand up in fully. "DEfinitely either someone broke in and is living here, or your old lusus used to use this spot. IT's huge, though!"   "Holy shit, dude." Thresh poked his head through and then shoved his way into the space. It definitely hadn't been cleaned in a good while. "That's been hiding here this entire time?"
clean your hive   Zyd was going through more of the stuff in the basement-space, and was impressed with what it saw. "DUde, you gotta take a look at all this. I Know you're set already, but the profits off of just this room alone have got to be amazing." As it rooted around the boxes, "ANd you seriously didn't know this was down here? AT all?"   Thresh was looking around and inside everything, just as amazed as Zyd was. "I had absolutely no idea. I hadn't seen ANY of this stuff." He picked up something that looked exceptionally shiny and Expensive. "I wonder how much this is worth?"   Zyd looked back to Thresh at it, giving the object a once-over. "COuple thousand Caegars, easy. PRobably more if you play your cards right." It went back to digging through other boxes. "WOnder if there really are any dead bodies down here, but I guess that would probably smell, like a lot."   "Yeah, it used to. A long time back. That's why it's so cold in here." He stood there with his hands in a box for a second. "Oh my god, did someone actually die down here? Do you think I have a dead body down here?"
He stood up, holding something new, equally as expensive.
". . . Can you sell dead bodies? Can you make a profit off of that? Skeletons, at least?"   Zyd took a moment to think. It hadn't really done much grave-desecrating recently, and never to take any bones. "YOu could probably sell bones, but a whole skeleton might be better. SChools always need material, right? ANd, I mean, there are some freaky artists out there, who might want certain tones of... paint. THat's not the whole body, though, hm... UNless you know any cannibals." It went back to its digging through excessively fancy accessories, and loose Caegars. Why would there be any in a box? I dunno, it's a neat visual.   "We should see if we can find on-oh. my god." He started digging further down in another box, and pulled out something that looked almost.. like an egg? It might just be a fake, but it's still radiating some sort of warmth. "Zyd."   "FInd what, a cannibal? THat wouldn't be too hard, maybe even easy-- yeah?" It looked up to Thresh, seeing the probable-egg. "WHat's that." It didn't really know much about things that were probably eggs. It didn't like running organics very much anyway-- considering the recent lusus disaster-- whether they were prenatal or not.   "This is an egg. Why is there an egg? Shouldn't there be more eggs? How did it get all the way out here? That doesn't seem right. Come here, come look. Is this an egg??" He held it out, being careful NOT TO DROP IT.   Zyd scrambled over, hopping over the boxes in its way. "THat... sure does look like an egg. NOt some regular cluckbeast egg, though, definitely not." It peered at the egg in Thresh's hand inquisitively. "DOes it feel like there's something alive in it? LIke, how is it weighted?"   "It feels like.. there's something in it. It's warm. It's kinda heavy. Zyd what do I do with this? I feel like this is something I do have to tell someone about. There is an egg in my hive." He holds it closer, making sure it doesn't get cold, but man he seems Concerned.   "I Mean, you've told me about the... egg, already." Zyd's eyes were glowing faintly, in the dim space of the basement, flashing back and forth (as they did.) "WHat's your plan, taking care of it? YOu're always all cold, though, maybe holding the egg like that isn't the best option." It was somewhat interested in the egg, now, mainly wondering what sort of egg it could be. Curse of a city-dweller though, it had absolutely no idea.   "Ah, shit. Yeah. You hold it." He held it out, once again being Very Careful. "I guess I have to take care of it? I don't know. I don't even know what to do with an egg. Do we take it somewhere? What do we do."   Zyd took the egg, cupping it gently in its (much warmer) hands. "MAybe you should take care of it, especially since you seem so dead set on keeping it. FIrst step is probably getting out of this basement and figuring out what kind of egg it is." It tilted its head back to the box tunnel, suggesting further that they move back. "SLothmom might even have an idea, too."   "Ahhhh, slothmom. Alright alright. Let's get out of here." He grabbed one of the Expensive Things and started heading up out of the tunnel again. dad thresh   Zyd followed him up, and out of the original Treasure Room™️, back to the blanket-covered couch and slothmom. All while carefully holding the egg, ensuring that it didn't bump against anything on the way. "HEy, slothmom, we're back," it said, as slothmom slowly woke up from her nap. Man, she's adorable. Love slothmom.   He waved to slothmom. God I love slothmom. "Good morning, slothmom. Do you want anything to eat?
Ah, wait. We have a question for you. Do you know what kind of egg this is?"
  Slothmom raised her head, as Zyd showed her the egg. She nodded, very slowly. She is a sloth, after all. "YOu know what kind of egg it is! WHat kind is it?" Zyd asked, still holding the egg out to her. Seconds pass, more seconds pass, before slothmom raised two of her arms. "SHe doesn't like to talk much, you know how she is," Zyd explained vaguely, while watching her use SSL (sloth sign language) to ever-so-slowly spell it out for them.   "...well what'd she say?" he said, watching her spell it out, whilst knowing Absolutely No Idea What She Is Saying.   Zyd shook its head, and asked her again, upon seeing her only nod, it turned back to Thresh, almost pale in the face. "SHe says it's... a troll egg." It definitely didn't mishear-- misread-- whatever, her. She was perfectly clear, and Zyd knew it.   "Zyd.
What the fuck do I do with that. How did it even get here? How do I take care of it? Do I keep it warm?!"
He sighed. "I should definitely tell someone about this. If there's someone living in my house, stealing eggs..."   "THresh, do you think I know anything about eggs?" Zyd was still holding it close, as to keep it warm. "I Don't think getting too cold would be good for it, but then you found it in a box in a basement you didn't know about. Unless that just makes eggs hibernate, or something." Slothmom nodded along, though whether it was to Zyd's words or just general nodding, who knew. She liked nodding. "ARe you sure you want to tell someone? WE don't know how the egg got here, anyway-- if someone's stealing eggs, that person would definitely have also been stealing your stuff."   "Stealing??? MY stuff???" He was immediately filled With Rage, despite Everything He Owned Being Stolen. "We have to fight them. That's my egg now, then. I guess I'm gonna be a parent?" god i love slothmom   "THe entire point of what I just said, is that someone hasn't been stealing your stuff. MOst likely, at least." Zyd set the egg, gently, onto slothmom, who slowly reached up to cradle it herself. An extra pair of limbs certainly helped in that regard. "WOnder what kind of troll is in the egg..." Zyd mumbled, while watching slothmom readjust herself.   "Maybe it's a fuschiablood. Maybe we're raising royalty right now." He squatted down to watch and see what was happening. "I wonder how long it takes to hatch?"   "OH, what if is is a fuschiablood. WHat would we even do then, honestly?" Zyd considered the options. It bet that those painter people would kill for fuschia, probably even literally. Maybe some kind of hostage situation? Maybe? It really had no idea. "I... Don't know how long it's going to take to hatch. Slothmom?" It looked to her and her egg, and she rose another couple of her arms to slowly sign... something. "SHe says it's about to hatch, really soon. SHe doesn't know exactly when, though."   "If it's a fuschiablood, do we become royalty? Like, secondhand royalty? That'd be pretty cool." He focused Intently on the egg. "I hope it'll hatch soon. I'm real curious. I just wanna know how it got there..."   "I Think if it's fuschiablood, we just get killed. PRobably, at least." Zyd crouched down with Thresh to watch the egg, and thus slothmom, who was entirely relaxed in this situation. The egg itself seemed to shake slightly, though it could have been slothmom's breathing. "UNless you have some other plan with it, of course."   "...Do we know any jadebloods?
That troll you kidnapped. She was a jadeblood, right?"
No "Do you think she would know what to do..?" Not even close "We should ask someone experienced with that sort of stuff." He looked at Zyd for confirmation, knowing his dear friend would know Exactly what to do.   Zyd, a goldblood in way over its head, had no idea what to do. "NO, that troll is an ironblood. ANd I can't think of too many jadebloods I know, off the top of my head." It was still looking at slothmom, now with its arms arranged so it could prop up its head. The egg shook again, slightly more noticeable than before. Slothmom simply held it with her usual serene smile, eyes half-closed, seemingly perfectly content with the situation.   "Wait, she's an iron blood? Why was her hair-... Oh my god, what do we do. It's shaking. Slothmom is it hatching??" The concern in his voice was More Audible.   "I Don't know why the ironblood's hair was green! MAybe thier's moirail is, or something-- oh you're right it is shaking." Zyd leaned in further to watch the egg, as Slothmom gripped it a little harder. It gave a more vigorous shake, though it hadn't cracked at all yet.   "Yeah... fuck, dude, we gotta get this to a jadeblood. I think. They're the ones that take care of all this, right? This is absolutely not my division." He looked back at the egg, thinking Hard. "What do we name it?"

The Egg by Orange

Zyd shrugged, leaning back again. The egg was more still, now. Probably still about to hatch, but maybe this is just how eggs work? They stop shaking and then pick it up again after a while? Was it possible to procrastinate on hatching? "I Mean, if we try to find a jadeblood, we'll be asked how we got the egg. BY which I mean, we'll be accused of stealing it. MAybe it's better to just leave the egg with slothmom, who is taking care of it pretty well. I Think so, at least, it's not like I've had to care for an egg before." Slothmom's smile grew wider for a moment, basking in the praise and gently patting the now-still egg. "WHat to name it? I Have no idea. J Names are always good, but. I Don't know."

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