Chapter 3: Maternal Responsibility [Illustration]

It's not long before Daniel arrives at his apartment complex. Still unaware of his otherworldly passenger, the slime patiently waits for the car to stop as the artist enters the parking garage. During the drive, it's had time to sort itself out more.

It now recognizes that the young man driving is Daniel, who hasn't changed much since Amy died. It's not sure why it wants to follow the son of the woman it consumed, but regardless, it understands it needs to be more careful moving around. While shuffling through Amy's memories, it discovered there weren't any creatures like it before. As such, its caution rises over being found.

Once parked, it waits for the artist to leave, shuffles out, and keeps a reasonable distance while tailing him. At one point, it pretended to be a puddle as a stranger passed by. Somehow, it avoids attention as it slithers around corners and up stairs until it sees Daniel open the door to his apartment.

Waiting for him to enter, it easily slides underneath the door after it shuts, then comes to a hallway leading to a large work area. A few doors to the kitchen, bedroom, and living room exist along the hallway. Passing those to the edge where Daniel's studio area exists, it sees the artist interact with a crossed-arm man in a suit who examines a painting on a stand.

"How is it?" Daniel asks, smiling hopefully.

The man in a suit grins like he's received candy. "It's...amazing! It feels like my mother is staring at me proudly and yet, so delicately. You made her somehow look younger too."

"Part of that thanks to how I lit the area around her when taking the reference photos. That said, for a fifty year old woman, she doesn't look bad."

The man chuckles, rubbing his head. "I appreciate it. I seriously have no complaints. You're an amazing artist! I'd like to add something on top of the agreed payment, if you don't mind."

Daniel widens his eyes and raises his hands. "Mr. Yun, I understand you're a wealthy individual, but I price the work according to my ability and value I believe I provide. I can assure you that I'm not underselling myself so there's no need for any additional payment."

The client seems to disagree. "Nonsense, let's not think of it as additional payment for the painting and more...as a tip."

There's back and forth between the two men. Unfortunately, the slime doesn't understand much about what they are discussing, so it decides to look around. Without creating too much noise, it stealthily surveys the studio and eventually slides into a large closet. From there, it sees a bunch of personal and client works stacked. Most are portraits with a mix of landscapes and abstract artwork.

It stops scanning when it comes to a dark painting, one pretty simple with shades of black and blue, but spread out are white specks representing stars. For the slime with Amy's memories, this triggers something new: A thought.

'...stars...!'

The slime's gelatinous body shivers, recognizing a voice of its own. Although its tone mirrors Amy's as that's the only amount of detail it has, it jiggles in delight to be developing so fast.

'Talk...want...to...talk!'

The slime continues to grow mentally, learning to assemble Amy's knowledge and memories to its advantage. But, to achieve its desire, it needs to approach the artist. Seeing how humans mostly only talk with other humans, it concludes it must be human too.

Well, human-like, but how does one become human?

The slime searches its chaotic knowledge bank but finds that the best information was learned on its own - a human's basic structure. While Amy deteriorated in the coffin, much remained intact, so absorbing her would give the slime info on how it needed to form itself.

Naturally, the slime leans towards becoming female. Part of this is due to Amy's influence as a woman, but it also feels an instinctive direction that it should only grow into a female form. Somehow, the idea of taking on a male form feels...wrong.

Coming to that conclusion, it shapes itself inside the closet, spreading out and defining features as it relocates mass. While it uses Amy in her twenties as a reference, it's also influenced by the drawings of females around. For the slime, the form must be to Daniel's liking.

"E-euah...em..."

Eventually, it manages to create a sound as it pulls in air and shapes its own vocal cord. It continues making sounds, trying to match Amy's voice while molding itself upward. It starts with all the limbs of a human, grows a generous butt and chest, then a round head. With the base established, it shapes facial features out, opening up a pair of eyes, nose, and luscious lips. Although the eyes she takes from Amy, she uses the surrounding portraits as inspiration for other features.

Once settled, the slime performs the final touches, growing out long, wavy hair and receding any residual slime. Soon, the slime has more or less considered itself ready to live as a slime girl. Even though she has no mirror, she knows precisely how she looks based on recording the changes in her molecular memory.

She smiles for the first time, satisfied with her quick work. There's still the fact that she looks like a blue jelly woman, but she's not sure how she can change that.

"O...oh..."

Carefully, she tries to use her new legs to walk.

Daniel thanks his client for the payment as the man takes his leave. After shutting the door, he leans against a wall and sighs. "Talking to clients is exhausting."

That said, the day is only starting, and there are some paintings he needs to finish for other people. His backlog is truly terrifying.

He straightens up and walks to his kitchen for a much-needed cup of coffee to get working, but flinches when he hears something crashing in his closet room. His heart nearly beats out of his chest, and paranoid, he grabs a nearby rolling pin on the counter.

"Who's there?!" he shouts, edging closer to his painter's closet.

"Ugh...ah..."

Daniel's eyes widen as he hears a female voice groaning within. He's unsure how the woman entered as his door was locked, but worrying about that now is useless. Should he just go and call the police or...?

No, since important paintings are stored there, he can't ignore them and risk potential damage. Gritting his teeth, he pushes himself forward for the sake of his backlog and opens the door to confront the intruder.

"Hey asshole, what do you-"

Daniel's words are caught up in his throat as he sees a blue gelatinous creature jiggling on the ground with a paint bucket fallen over and embedded into its blue gelatinous mass. The creature seems to struggle to get back up, partially merging its legs into a puddle after falling. It makes a few annoyed grunts before it notices a shadow and looks up at the young artist.

Despite not being of this world, Daniel can clearly see the creature to have a female form, but this doesn't make him feel any better as the slime girl stares into his shaky eyes and smiles widely.

"Da...niel~"

The lovingly-called artist pales and stumbles back, dropping the rolling pin as he does. Despite the slime girl's pure intentions, he doesn't feel it except for a need to run. He manages to take another step back, but soon his vision spins around him as his foot catches the rolling pin.

"Daniel!"

The slime girl addresses him more clearly, seeing his eyes rolling up from the shock of everything. Before he hits the wooden flooring, she quickly slides across to catch him, cushioning him from behind with her mass.

"Daniel!" the slime girl calls out again, worried while feeling unknown fear filling her.

The artist groans weakly, able to catch her voice for a little bit. It feels strangely familiar, like a mother calling out to her hurt child in panic. In fact, it sounds a lot like when he fell off his bike when he was young and sprained his ankle before his mother. As the memories of his astronomer mother flash in his mind, he slowly loses consciousness.

The slime girl shapes herself up more until she can hold the limp artist in her arms. Her new eyes quiver, but she relaxes as soon as she sees him breathing. 'He...fainted?'

Did he faint because of her? Regardless, she's relieved. While some concern remains, warm emotions flood her as more of Amy's memories click into place like the final pieces of a puzzle. She holds him tightly to stare at his face, then slides her new gel hands across his face, brushing through the sides of his hair.

'He's...grown...much...son...'

Son?

She pauses, then slowly widens her eyes. Although much of Amy's memories remain jumbled, the most prized pieces finish assembling within her and erupt with tons of love and heart. Now, she's come to embody those feelings.

" ...Son!"

Yes, this must be her purpose. It has to be! With such resolve, she hugs him closer, squeaking with astonishment. Although she can't spill tears, her voice turns hoarse from finally returning to her sweet artist. "He's...my...son!"

(Larger Res on Itaku.ee)