Kafkaesque has a minion!

Snuffles the Meeples

A strange new virus had spread across Subeta.

This was NOT a zombie virus, but that didn’t make this ailment any less bizarre.

At first glance, the virus seemed like the common cold. Those infected would begin coughing and sneezing. However, after several hours of contracting the illness Subetans made a shocking discovery: the mucus excreted from the ill would mutate into blobs! These blobs would wander around aimlessly and interact with anything that caught the attention of their curious eyes.

Even the unliving were falling victim to the virus and creating little blob creatures. A Death Roe zombie and Caterkiller zombie were interviewed about the mysterious virus that created sentient life. Both zombies gave some interesting information about the blobs: they would tend to their creators’ needs. The caterkiller zombie stated that several of the blobs made a living tower to reach a cabinet filled with the zombies favorite snacks. As for the Death Roe zombie, her blobs had grabbed pillows and blankets to make the zombie more comfortable as she watched TV. One blob even grabbed the remote and handed it to her!

A few weeks later new information came out. Many ill Subetans had reported that the blobs were very affectionate, especially towards their creators. One way the blobs would show affection was to hug their creator’s face, leaving mucus smeared under their nostrils. Thanks to the research conducted by local scientists, it had been determined that the blobs behaved in such a manner to ensure that more blobs could be created. In other words, the blobs were attempting to re-infect the ill so that Subetans would produce more and more blobs.

This new information caused great concern. Sick Subetans were encouraged to limit physical contact with the blobs as much as possible so they could fully recover. At the same time, rumors spread about whether Survival might be affected due to the virus’s emergence. During Survival everyone was exchanging kisses and biting those who wished to become zombies and join the Unliving population. These activities were almost certain to spread the mysterious virus and create a massive amount of the blobs running around. No Subetan was more concerned about the potential cancellation of Survival than the leader of the Volunteer Infection Program. A year without Survival meant that there wouldn’t be much of an increase in the zombie population.

One day, an experiment 893 walked along the nature path in Riverside. She saw a bunch of curious scootle interacting with some art prints that had dropped by a previous visitor. One of the art prints displayed two chibi pets playing on the Delphi Beach. The sight made the experiment’s heart sink. A few months ago the experiment 893 had been a beautiful glade neela. But one day her owner had taken her and her siblings to Euclid’s zapper. Euclid ended up getting distracted and the zapper ended up zapping the wrong pet….the glade neela. Before she knew it, the neela had been transformed into an experiment 893! Her owner had been horrified and shouted at Euclid for improperly aiming the zapper. The experiment’s siblings began to comfort her as she broke into tears.

The experiment 893’s owner had promised the pet that she would try her best to earn a glade potion and a neela elixir so the experiment could change back into a glade neela. However, the process would take a while since both the required potion and elixir were very expensive. Her owner’s promise, however, could not protect the experiment from the next emotional hurdle: the loss of her friends.

The experiment’s friends could be best described as snobby mean girls. The group would constantly look down on pets who had a lower income or certain colors such as graveyard, nightmare, or hydrus. Once these pets learned of what had happened to the experiment 893 they quickly began ignoring her whenever she approached them. The experiment’s owner was not happy about her pet going through such a situation, but the human had believed for a while that those pets were not the best influence for the experiment.

A couple of days later the experiment 893 was lying in bed in her room. She had started showing symptoms of a cold soon after returning home from the nature walk. Her owner had taken swift action and sent the pet to bed. The rest of the family was currently downstairs, watching the local news.

“And the mysterious virus continues to spread across Subeta. 15 more cases have been confirmed in Riverside over the last two weeks. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the new cases confirmed in Shadowglen,” the reporter said.

One of the experiment’s siblings, a steamwork bumbus, pointed to a corner of the screen. One of the mysterious blobs was in the background interacting with a gravestone as a zombie was being interviewed. Their owner, who was named Tiana, shook her head.

“We still have to take precautions, guys. Those blobs are cute, but we don’t want their numbers growing too big. They’re capable of forcing half of the Subetan population indoors for weeks! And that would have a negative effect on our society. Less workers available, which means less goods and services.” Tiana looked towards the stairs, thinking of her third pet. “That’s why I’m so worried about Amalia. The common cold is so similar to this mysterious virus.”

Suddenly, a loud shout rang through the house! Tiana and her pets leaped off the couch and rushed upstairs. For the shout had come from Amalia’s room!

“Amalia?!” Tiana yelled as she burst through the door. “What’s wrong?”

The experiment 893 gave a horrified look towards her owner and pointed to the trashcan next to a desk. As Tiana and her pets looked at the trashcan, it started to shake. Suddenly the trashcan fell over and something crawled out. It was one of the mysterious blobs.

“Just great,” muttered Tiana. “Just…great. I’m going to call the doctor.”

Over the next several weeks, Amalia created more of the mysterious blobs. Like the zombies who were interviewed, the experiment 893 would have her needs taken care by the blobs. The blobs would bring her books and try to open the pantry to get the experiment 893 snacks. One blob seemed to spend a lot more time with Amalia compared to the others. This blob once tried to pick up a controller when Amalia was playing a video game. The blob had sensed that Amalia was lonely due to her friends abandoning her after she was accidentally zapped and had tried to join the game so she wouldn’t be lonely. This blob also grew friendly towards one of Amalia’s siblings. The chibi aeanoid would pet the blob and even feed it morsels of food when no one was looking.

One day, the SAI set up a temporary headquarters in the Arctic Frost to investigate the blob phenomenon spreading over Subeta. The SAI had realized that the cold climate of the Arctic Frost increased the chances of people getting sick, which meant more blobs to deal with. In addition, the arctic frost was known to be a large area that was mostly unexplored due to its harsh terrain. If a blob got lost in the Ice Fields, it could make the blob infestation almost impossible to deal with since the blobs could hide in the harsh winter winds and continue reproducing by infecting the local wildlife. After setting up their makeshift headquarters, the SAI announced that Subetans should bring any of the blobs to them for research purposes.

Tiana and her steamwork bumbus went to the Arctic Frost with the blob that was so close to Amalia because Tiana believed that the strong bond between the blob and its host made it more likely that Amalia would continually be infected. In turn, the repeat infections would mean that Tiana’s family of pets would never be able to remove the blob infestation from their house. While Tiana and her pet were waiting to meet with the SAI, however, the curious blob creature managed to slip out of the backpack it had been placed in and wandered off.

The blob eventually made it to Vanya’s workshop, where an elderly Subetan was trying to get his reborn demi changed into a nostalgic pet. The elderly Subetan had to run some errands, so he left his reborn demi and an Essence of Melody with Vanya so Vanya could complete the necessary steps to transform the reborn demi. While Vanya was working to transform the demi, however, the blob rushed into the workshop. This startled the reborn demi and caused her to accidentally set some of Vanya’s projects on fire! Vanya shouted and rushed to save his work. In his haste, the toymaker dropped a nostalgic blob toy that had recently been coated with the liquid from the Essence of Melody. The blob, not knowing any better, grabbed the toy and began to play with it. The magic of the essence started reacting to the blob’s body. Soon, the blob had been transformed into a nostalgic blob! Vanya came into the room after successfully dousing his burning products and was shocked to see a nostalgic blob moving around. The toymaker noticed that the reborn demi was still present, which meant that a different being had been transformed by the Essence of Melody! Vanya groaned and sat down in his chair, clearly befuddled by what had just occurred.

Soon Tiana and her bumbus came to the workshop to ask Vanya if they had seen a blob wandering around. In response to this question, Vanya muttered, shook his head, and pointed to the nostalgic blob resting in a cardboard box. The nostalgic blob immediately recognized Tiana and the bumbus and moved towards them. Tiana started to say that this wasn’t the blob that they were looking for until the steamwork bumbus recognized that the nostalgic blob’s behavior was eerily similar to the one that they had brought to the Arctic Frost….

When Tiana and the two pets returned home, the chibi aeanoid immediately recognized the blob.

“It’s Kafkaesque!” she shouted with glee.

The blob had been named Kafkaesque due to the word sounding similar to “cough”, which was related to the symptoms that Amalia had experienced.

Tiana was completely bewildered by the fact than a being not identified as an official Subeta pet had been transformed by a potion, but her steamwork bumbus pointed out, “These blobs are much bigger than bumbii, and despite our small size it’s possible for us to change our form after exposure to potions.”

“Can we please keep her now?” pleaded the chibi aeanoid. “Since she transformed, I don’t think we have to worry about her infecting us with that mysterious illness.”

Tiana had chosen to take Kafkaesque to the SAI after the chibi aeanoid became sick and started producing her own blobs. At the time, Tiana had been hoping the SAI might give her answers on how to deal with the illness in her family. But now a solution had suddenly fallen into her lap.

“We’ll keep her,” Tiana stated, “and I’ll have to contact the SAI to inform them of this development.”

The chibi aeanoid clasped her vines together in joy. “I’m so happy! Kafkaesque might have been contagious, but she’s been a much better friend to Amalia than those snooty girls.”

Amalia, who had been sitting on the couch, spoke up. “It’s true. Over the last few weeks I’ve felt a lot of kindness and affection from these blobs. Probably even more than the friends I thought I had.”

The SAI was surprised yet overjoyed to learn that the blobs could be transformed into other pets. They launched a fullscale campaign to test if other potions and elixirs could transform blobs as well. Eventually most of the blobs were transformed into various pet species, bringing the mysterious blob invasion to an end.

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Story and Background by PiplupMagby34.
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