#slime lore

Sadnesses are formed by fallen tears and the ambient Craft energy in the air. Strong emotions or strong Crafters tend to lead to stronger Sadnesses at the onset. But! Even very weak emotions can thrive in unexpected ways.

These original tears, containing the emotion that formed them, sucks in ambient Craft Energy and moisture, and if there is enough for a Sadness to 'form', they enter the world as weak, Craft-sustained 'monsters'.

The formation process takes several hours, and usually has a greater chance of succeeding in dark and moist places. Even a very weak Sadness might thrive in a damp forest at night, while it would take a particularly strong Sadness to form in your well-lit house.

The newborn Sadness needs fuel to keep it going, stat. They suck up moisture from anything they can run over, and they drain Craft from both the air and living things.

They also dredge up mud and filth from the ground, contributing to their brackish, unpleasant, dark hues. If a Sadness gets large enough or lucky enough, it may hunt small living things for their energy and moisture. (Usually in the form of blood from small animals. Yuck!)

All that filth is processed into the Sadness's main body, partially solidifying into a thick, tar-like slime substance. Not all Sadnesses grow particularly large; it's easy to mistake a large Sadness for a strong one, but even small Sadnesses can be deceptively strong.

Size is wholly determined by how much moisture a Sadness is able to absorb, while the solidity of their bodies is determined by how much Craft they have absorbed.

Drippy, goopy Sadnesses that are barely able to stay together are usually weak on the Craft end. These are usually more aggressive, even if they are easier to fight--they need Craft to remain together, and thus they seek it out with more aggression than other Sadnesses.

Solid Sadnesses that take on a clear shape are usually ones that have absorbed more Craft, and thus are more dangerous to fight--they have strong Craft abilities, and are sometimes considered more intelligent.

Sadnesses are drawn towards the person who originally spawned them--obtaining more tears from the same person will dramatically increase their abilities. It's also easier for a Sadness to affect that person specifically; they are, after all, formed out of that person's emotions. No matter how weak the Sadness is, it can always communicate with the person who spawned it.

Sadnesses seek to feed on more tears--they usually cannot communicate, so the easiest way to obtain this is violence. Sadnesses seek to cause enough pain to any victim that they find to make them start crying.

More often, Sadnesses are able to simply injure someone enough to bleed, and the Sadness will instead absorb the blood, but bleeding isn't always enough to cause a Sadness to leave a victim be.

Stronger Sadnesses can be defeated, but will reform after a time, weaker but still possessed of Craft energy to pull themselves together.

If a Sadness grows too big too quickly, they may split off, which significantly weakens the two new Sadnesses, but provides a chance for them to survive. They tend to stick together--it's not strange to see small packs of the same type of Sadness together.

Occasionally, a larger Sadness may just straight up eat another Sadness, where it incorporates some of the emotions and Craft of the smaller Sadness as its own. Multi-type Sadnesses are almost always amalgamations of this sort.

A Sadness is always going to be drawn towards the person who spawned them, usually making them local menaces, but if their person gets too far away, they tend to wander aimlessly instead, merely following very base biological needs of water and Craft.

In my slime AU, Loop's body was totally destroyed when they ate that fallen star. Totally obliterated their body, and everything that mattered about them? Was sealed inside of the Star.

The Universe is a very resourceful entity, after all. When answering such a specific wish as the one Loop made, its better to totally sweep the board clean.

Loop works similarly to Sadnesses--Craft creating 'matter' and animating it. Just, instead of a strong emotion powering them, its their will. Their 'soul', some might say. The core of what makes Loop, Loop.

The star inside of their chest is a literal one, working as their 'core'. Crystallized Wish Craft, incredibly powerful, and making them distinctly biologically different than a Sadness, just working on the same systems.

The core means that Loop is still a person! Retains all of their memories, even the ones they probably don't want to have, retains their personality, and has much more control over their body and form.

The Wish Craft also means that instead of being highly unpleasant, gross, bad-tasting drippy goop, they are far more solid, more akin to gelatin, and taste delightfully like caramel. They're also warm to the touch.

Loop's slime-body is slightly opaque, so you can sort of see through them. Their star resides in the center of their body, and the stars that you can see on their form are actually submerged in their slime.

They glisten and tend to bead condensation, like a cup of water on a hot day, and have a level of control over their form. The 'star head' can be pulled in and condensed until human-like features are visible instead.

Loop still needs moisture, like a Sadness, and Craft, like a Sadness, but given that they're sentient, they can respond to these needs in an intelligent manner, rather than seeking them out blindly.