#desik

Saint and Osiris gasp, gathering around their daughter as they anxiously await her first word.

"Da—da—dada!" Desik says, smiling.

Saint cries.

Osiris jumps in and hugs her.

"She said it for both of us!!" Saint musters.

Nodding, Osiris lifts his and Saint's baby girl out of the crib, and cradles her. "Say it again! Say dada!"

"Dada!!" Desik says, and she reaches her little baby arms out for Osiris's face.

Saint leans in, tears falling onto the wrapped swaddle around his daughter, and kisses her. "I love you, Desik."

Desik grabs Saint's face, and clicks her mandibles against the metal.

Osiris chuckles. He leans in and presses his nose to her face, rubbing it gently against her. "Sweetheart, you'll always be our special little girl." He leans in a bit more, kissing Desik tenderly.

Desik laughs. She smiles. And her hands move to Osiris's face, holding it softly between clawed fingers.

I’ve been working on these during streams and offline, they are essentially the thing that Maliffirum’s body used to be before they possessed it. In parts of the headworld, but Desik especially, it is common to bind the soul of an animal to a machine; essentially meeting the dependability and strength of steel with the eager to please and often loyal mindset of a faithful mount. In regions where food and water are scarce, they are especially popular.

While there are places that specialize in specifically making these creatures that are part supernatural and mechanical (even going so far as to breed animals that are essentially raised and trained just to be bound to a machine), the more affluent members of society may commission one such construct to house the soul of a favorite mount  so they may bind their soul to the machine before they pass- especially if said mount was about to succumb to illness or injury before their time.

FKVNSNGJSKGJAJF XD