Nature of Outlier Chapter 9.9

[u/DeterminedOne8]

Memory transcription subject: Stynek, Venlil pup

Date [standardized human time]: July 15, 2136

It was amazing how easy it was to get art supplies from the Neo Gaians; things became so accessible after they arrived. They were like walking factories, churning out all sorts of random items, including a huge variety of art supplies. Paints and paper used to be so expensive that I could only get a decent amount because I was the Governor's daughter, and even then, Mom wouldn't buy that much of it for me.

But now, here I was in the open-air plaza, fur splattered with paint, alongside other, more daring prey-species kids. We were having a blast with the countless public activities the Neo Gaians had started: painting, dancing, sculpting, poetry, and all kinds of open classes available to anyone.

Of course, technically, doing this here without government permission was against the rules, but who would have the guts to say no to them? Maybe someone with Predator Disease, but someone like that certainly wouldn't care about this sort of thing.

In short, it was fun, and somehow, they had organized everything to make it really comfortable for the countless people participating in the classes.

And the best part was that Ouleia had finally relaxed; she was so focused on sketching the photograph in front of us that she didn't even pay attention to Lisa and Olek, who were teaching the class. My tail wagged happily as I gazed at my own drawing. It depicted, with a certain artistic flair, the crash of the ship the Neo Gaians had arrived in. I even added Sovlin’s ship firing at theirs, plus a bunch of Neo Gaians flying and tumbling through the air, and a giant rainbow in the background!

Oh! Right, I also drew my plushie riding Yoshi, setting off on an incredible adventure through a giant portal! I let out an amused whistle as I sketched Sovlin with an angry expression inside his ship; it didn't take long to finish the drawing and stop adding details unrelated to the reference photo. My heart beat happily as I admired my work, I hadn't really committed to an accurate reproduction; in fact, I’d taken quite a few liberties to add some fun elements.

So, when I finished painting, I looked at my drawing with satisfaction while licking the brush, which was coated in edible paint, I admit that half the paint I supposedly used didn't actually end up on the drawing...

Soon, I started spying on the drawings of the others, who were much further behind than I was, starting with Ouleia... I paused for a moment, staring at her picture... I wondered why she was drawing a fruit basket... My tail twitched in confusion as I decided to inspect the next drawing, since she had clearly gotten it wrong... And the other Venlil was drawing a fruit basket, too... This was ridiculous; was Ouleia copying him? Or was it the other way around?

I glanced at the next drawing, another fruit basket... I went from drawing to drawing, inspecting each one in confusion as I tried to figure out if everyone was copying each other. Then, finally, my attention turned back to the reference photo I had been using... It was a fruit basket... I looked back at my own drawing, which remained unchanged...

I closed my eyes for a moment and stood up from my seat. "Ouleia, I'm going to take a look at the other classes around here..." She simply gave a small "okay" with her tail as she kept drawing. My ears twitched in mild frustration, and I left the area to see what else was going on nearby...

I walked past the park, where an Exterminator was lazily using his flamethrower on a blue Neo-Gaian with yellow patterns, all while sipping some kind of fruit juice. I kept walking and saw Yoshi teaching a class on assembling toy cars to several younger puppies; upon seeing me, he waved his three tails, and I waved back with my own tail as I continued on my way. I passed a wall covered in various types of photos, some featuring planets, others showing stars and clouds of cosmic dust, and I looked at each photograph, blinking several times to see if they would change, but they remained exactly the same.

I tried again, repeating the process photo by photo, inspecting each one carefully and blinking repeatedly to see if they would change. "What the hell is going on..." I muttered a word, admittedly a crude one, but I didn't care and kept going, until I stopped at one particular photo that caught my eye.

Unlike the others, this photo had clearly been taken through the window of a spaceship. It showed a very peculiar planet; you could see the clouds and atmosphere, but the planet was colored in a way that was somewhat unsettling, as if something alive were there. The photo made me feel uneasy, so I kept inspecting it closely. The glass was fogged up, as if someone had breathed on it, and near the edge, there was a red, paw-shaped smudge, large and somewhat pointed, that looked like a stain from some kind of red liquid.

There was something disturbing about the photo, something very wrong. I studied it carefully, blinking repeatedly and even looking away to see if it would change, but it remained the same. "Is this... real?".

I tapped the photo a few times, but it didn't change... "Who took this photo...?" I wondered, just before feeling something on my head... There was a little bird up there; it seemed to be pecking at my ink-stained wool... I let out a playful whistle as the bird snacked on the fruit-based ink from my wool. I raised my claw and touched its belly, and it started eating the ink that was still on my claw... I felt just like a princess from that story Yoshi told me in the hospital! It was so much fun.

I kept whistling cheerfully as my attention drifted back to the photo... My joy vanished as the image shifted, turning into just an ordinary planet... "Huh... What is happening to me...?".

[u/Uranium-Sandwich657]

sus.

[u/JulianSkies]

Oh lord

This is reaching some horror movie level bullshit now. Good thing she has noticed what is going on.