Staving off boredom becomes increasingly harder the longer you have existed. The more that you have witnessed and experienced the fewer the thrills that life had to offer. Aegir had to struggle against boredom by reinventing himself in ways both small and larger. Here upon Shokushu he had taken up altering his normal behavior chosing to hunt in varying fashions. Neglected abilities were now used for it was here that Aegir had begun toying more and more with his inherit gift at illusions. He was even beginning to learn a small measure of creativity first inspired by his dealings with Natalya. Delving into her mind had allowed him to draw upon her own experiences while sifting into the memories of those minds that he had previously absorbed prior to arriving on this world allowed him some measure of inspiration.

It had been something that allowed him to keep boredom from stealing itself upon him. Aegir had seen the birth of stars, had seen the demise of others and in all that time there had not been much that he had not experienced, thought of or born witness too. Of course this had led him to humans. Their alien thoughts and beliefs were so wild and unpredictable that he had been drawn to their species as a moth would be drawn to an open flame. One could have even said that he was fascinated by their kind. He certainly had been tainted by them getting snared up in studying them. By this stage he had learned a great deal about his subjects though there were always things that would befuddle him. Aegir may have once been a dullard like the rest of his kind but through the absorption of human memories he had become tainted by the very prey that he had hunted. Learning and in some cases taking on some of their emotional traits had made him a stranger to his own kind for his people, the few that there were, had motivations, goals and thoughts that humans would have found incomprehensible.

Aegir was now mentally a hybrid of the two species not that he had minded. In fact he saw it as the necessary step in evolutionary advancement believing that his people had reached the epitome of their own achievements. That they could not learn or adapt any further without first learning from beings that they had always regarded as insignificant for they saw humans in much the same way that humans would have regarded ants. Pests that they would loose no sleep over if they crushed them underfoot. For the most part they were beings of such insignificance that interaction with them simply did not occur. Aegir had blurred that line though, he had chosen to learn about these creatures and as a consequence got himself wrapped up in his studies. Over time he would learn a great many things about them even learning that they had uses to his grand schemes, schemes of revenge, of conquest all inspired by the drives and desires of those very minds that he had taken upon his own.

Life here upon Shokushu had been easier than his tenure back on Earth. He had no need of worrying about the interference of his kind for they had no idea that he had been here. The inhibitors that had been set into place made hunting easier, though not fool proof as he had been reminded. He only hoped that he would not grow too accustomed to having such luxaries not that he would not enjoy them while they lasted.

Today had been a day that began like any other. Managing to sate his hunger upon a creature that resembled the sharks of earth, Aegir then pulled himself from his watery lair. His nodes fed him continuous updates, information about new arrivals, keeping tabs upon some of his earlier victims and the like. His nodes were good tools, extensions of himself that would grow and mature into sentient beings one day provided that he did not crush them under tentacle well before that. See, the nodes would mature then turn upon him that was just the way things were done in his species since sexual reproduction was no longer possible amongst his lot. Budding produced these miniature versions of himself creatures roughly the size of a half dollar that were perfect for getting into places that would have required a great deal of effort upon Aegir's part. They could go unnoticed and while they served as conduits allowing Aegir to broadcast his abilities through them and even usurp their senses to experience what they did, thus they were quite useful. The annoying thing was that he had to constantly replace them, killing those that displayed too much intelligence knowing full well that if he ever lost his vigilance in this regard that he would find himself murdered by his own creations.

This morning he received a few renewed reports about another musician. Ri, the youngest of his nodes, had been conducting the work of following around Lilian Love Valentine. It telepathically probed her mind drawing out information that it relayed back to Aegir; noted her patterns and routines and generally played both scout and spy. Aegir had primarily found himself interested in those with certain qualities. Atheletes for the endurance of their bodies and the simple fact that they were better suited to carry spawn, a prospect that he could not entertain until wisking them away from this place but a very important prospect nevertheless. Those with great wills and those with knowledge and intellect were others that garnered his attention for he was always up for a challenge or learning something new, regardless of how trivial. Musicians, his Achilles heel so to speak, were in a class by themselves. He found their songs soothing at least those that employed soft undertones in their melodies. Harsher practioners could cause him discomfort though either way he had been drawn to them. One could be the sweetest of ambrosias, the other a foul poison. Aegir knew that he would only stand to gain by expanding his horizons, by conquering his weaknesses he could at least master one of his flaws.

Uncertain as to Lilian's prowess in the musical arts Aegir had elected to keep tabs on her nevertheless if only to distinquish for himself what she was capable of and where exactly to place her. From the beach to the forest, Aegir made his way through the gloomy terrain. His precognitive abilities rarely came into play for he had the knack for enjoying the occassional surprise when it cropped up. Today he had only sought to recall his eldest node Rue so that he could destroy the thing. It had achieved a great deal of intellect in a short span of time causing Aegir to become weary of it. He was not expecting to face an imprompt opportunity and had he not been preoccupied with accomplishing this particular goal he might have been aware of the fact that Ri was trying to make contact with him, trying to inform him as to Lilian. But at this moment Aegir, who usually could multitask quite well, had tuned out his nodes so that none of his tools would prematurely become aware of his intentions, namely Rue. It would do little good if Rue realized Aegir planned on murdering him even if the node could do little save for run off and hide at this stage. Aegir preferred not to play games of hide and go seek with his creation at present and so shut himself off from mental contact with these beings not knowing that what Ri would have relayed to him may have forestalled his hand directing his attention to Shokushu's latest student ...

I'd decided to wander the outskirts of the island with a group of course; I'd decided to tag along with a small gathering of girls whom had a place they hung out together or so they said. It was a curious day and I couldn't help shake the feeling something was watching me. Eventually though I got seperated from the small gathering and left on my own standing on the higher side of the island; a cliff overlooking the beach; it wasn't a high cliff I could probably jump off it and be quite fine. My eyes noticed something on the edge of the cliff. A small squid thing of some sort. I approached cautiously before picking it up not knowing where it had come from. I glanced behind me once more thinking I saw another; perhaps a little smaller one than this one but, perhaps I hadn't noticed it.

I sighed slightly never having seen this sort of thing before. I pulled from my bag a turmist of water and plopped the odd thing into it adding a bit of sea salt; I knew i wouldn't be able to drink from it anymore but, I wasn't going to let this thing suffer. I Decided to sit calmly on the cliff now with my keyboard; it had enough power for at least 48 hours without the adaptor and I began to play something simple and soft as a warm up.

"Will pour it into the ocean on the way back to the dorm."

I said to myself not sure what to do when i finished playing.

Ri was no doubt distressed. The thing had not been all that agile given its small size and so when Lilian found and essentially captured it Ri had been helpless in thwarting her. While like the blue-ring octopus Ri contained a very deadly poisonous bite it had refrained from delievering it upon her due to the fact that the venom it contained was rather lethal and it did not wish to kill her. Mind you the alternative of being stuck in someone's drinking container hadn't been all that promising either and so the node had tried to use its fledgling abilities to no avail. It was too young to control an infant's reactions let alone one of Lilian's age.

So it did as any child in its situation would do. It called for help wailing telepathically for its parent. Aegir had tuned it out though as he made his progress through the forest towards the campus. Wanting to deal with Rue first and foremost Aegir had found that he had been distracted from that task as a sound both sweet and faint carried itself upon the wind. His nodes, just as susceptible to sound as he was, became entranced though it was only Ri that could hear the enchanting melody.

Aegir found himself rooted to the spot, his body swaying back and forth to the rhythm of such a ghostly sounding tune for the distance had distorted the sound somewhat. Not so much as befuddled as awe-struck, Aegir had found himself entranced by the sound. A portion of him did not wish to remove himself from this spot, another wanted to get even closer to the cause of such a pleasing sound. Had his mind not been distorted by the music itself.

Softer tones always had a means of making him lethargic, yet he had been drawn to the source slowly gathering up enough of his barings to slither through the forest. Tuning out his surroundings for the most part Aegir was guided by the vibrations that stimulated his eardrums. Only as his concentration began to peel away from other tasks did he feel the spike of fear that Ri relayed to him. Not that he had been concerned for the well being of his captured node. Aegir should have been alarmed that his sentry was spotted by his prey, should have but in his current state he had been unconcerned by what he would have deemed as something so trivial. He was aware enough to realize that the sounds had to have been coming from a student, that it was likely Lilian since Ri was frantically relaying its situation to Aegir probably in hopes of being rescued. If the thing had kept a calm mind it would have gathered from Lilian's thoughts that she intended on releashing him back into the sea and though that panic ebbed with the tune that came over it Ri was still in an elevated state of agitation. Aegir would soon be upon the scene drawn to the source of that music like mice were to the playing of the pied piper's merry tune.

My music while soft stiff carried the occasional 'heavy' line of music to it; I'd composed it myself and quite enjoyed the contrast every now and then. My eyes now and then looked to where I had stashed the odd creature though I didn't hesistate in my performance I kept thinking about the stashed whatever it was. And then felt the eyes watching me the pendent at my bosom shimmered in the light though I was in shadow. I looked it over curiously as I played now attention pulled from the creature I'd captured.

"Two things I don't know what the fuck either of them are. A damned squid thing in a bottle and a cursed haunted pendant that won't come off!"

I huffed a bit angrily suddenly music halting for just a moment as I calmed myself down before returning to my composition. Dad would be proud of me; mom... ehhh not so much. she had always wanted a son for whatever reason.

The melody was most unique, a sweet symphony for his ears coupled with a harsher string of notes sprinkled in here and there. He did not know whether or not to find these parts distasteful or simply bask in them as well. Sure those notes did cause him to wince just a bit though that had been more from his sensitivity to their sharper pitch than any faulty playing on Lilian's part. Beckoned forth he continued towards the source of that sound feeling like a zombie in that he had a single minded purpose.

Then, as if storm clouds parted to give way to the illuminous sun that they had concealed, Aegir snapped out of his mood. The music had vanished, ceasing at least for the moment and with that came a flood of thoughts streaming into his mind. Ri, the panicked node, told its woeful tale. Really, did it expect to be rescued? If it were so careless in getting seen let alone captured then what use was that particular node to him anyway? True, he had to be cautious about letting nodes get too intelligent but ones that were so inferior that they bumbled matters were just as bad in his opinion. Their only saving grace was that they were not attempting to kill him though one never knew when such bumbling behavior was a ruse in order to mislead one into thinking that the thing lacked wits when it possessed a keen intellectual mind.

So he had captured the full details from Ri, accessed the nodes information stores about its captor then weighed his options carefully. Aegir had been attempting to overcome his Achilles heel though he was nowhere near being invulnerable against such sonic attacks. Nay, that was several years if not decades off. He reasoned if he continued forward that Lilian could subdue him through her music placing him in a vulnerabe position. The ceasing of her playing or one of those sharper notes jolting him back out of that state of being.

Unaware of her amulet given that Ri could not relay much information of use to him at present Aegir slithered forward adding just a hint of caution to his movements as the trees began to thin out gradually upon his approach to the cliff itself. He did not bother to camouflage himself, though he did take care to move with a degree of stealth before coming within sight of her. Still within the field of cover that the trees provided he could now see the glow emitting off of her necklace and paused for a moment to ponder the significance of that before approaching even closer. During this time his mind pressed into her own, scrolling through it as he drew upon her very thoughts and memories in an attempt to learn more about this mystery that had been unveiled before his very eyes.

My eyes darted up and I could actually feel something touching at my thoughts; Odd thing really. All he saw would be the symbol on my necklace & the things I told people freely; which wasn't much at all, if he had made in far enough to explore my thoughts.

My eyes darted up to glare at the creature even though it had not yet revealed itself the necklace seemed to tell me something was amiss. The vague shimmer became more obvious to the eye as this odd creature came into view but I continued to play for the time being; hell if I was going to stop; music soothed attackers pretty damn often I wasn't going to give up possibly my only defense.

My eye moved to my thirmist and given this whatever the fuck it was' appearance it was somehow related to what I had caught. I moved the thirmist with a foot and lifted it with my one hand continuing to play with the other. I was partially ready to release it.

"You related to this squid thing I found? it kinda seemed lost."

I commented as my eyes gazed downward at my simple clothing; the denim shorts and halter top which rested over a t-shirt and my chest wrappings. My bikini bottom styled panties under my shorts I'd been told not to trust anything I met on this island and I certainly wasn't going to go against that with some big squid thing staring at me.

He had figured out that the necklace that she wore had been some sort of detection device, that much he could readily gleen from her behavior and responses. The glow that it produced seemed to correspond to her reactions, her eyes cast in his direction while she continued to play as if there was no need to fear anything. Most peculiar though in his long years Aegir had seen every sort of reaction from abject terror, to stricken curiousity, to downright panic whenever he had chosen to reveal himself. He could not recount many nonchalant attitudes in his days and while it was not the first time he had experience such contact it was most rare indeed.

Lilian continued to play even as he caressed her mind for information some how picking up upon the intrusion. Only a psionic being would have detected his probes, that or that necklace of hers bestowed her with some sort of extra sensory perception not that it had mattered much. In fact it actually assisted him in that he did not need to use any care as he drew himself forth slithering over the terrain his white pupil less eyes staring at her as he approached. His mind had been at ease, his movements painfully sluggish as if he had been intoxicated by the sounds she had so easily produced with the use of that key board, a good thing for her sake.

Her question almost went unheard for he had been too distracted from the music, too compliant at this stage. Sure enough his own sixth sense would snap him out of this lull should he find himself under attack but short of that there was little that would draw him out of this serene state. Somewhere in the back of his complex mind he heard her proposed question, his mouth tentacles twitched slowly as if alive themselves apparently used by the creature to express things nonverbally at least to his own kind.

Aegir, lacking vocal chords, expressed himself outwardly through his telepathic gifting speaking directly into her mind. It is from me if that is what you mean, Aegir did not fully comprehend relationships as they pertained to families. In a way he supposed he was both mother and father to the creature she had referenced by her understanding of such terms though with the nodes being without any real intelligence of their own they had been more or less tools, extensions of the self, until they matured and gained their own sentience. Easing forth Aegir would come to rest not far from where she was, eyes now watching the movements of her hand as it deftly moved over her keyboard as if shutting out the thermus she presented with the other.

"Do you want it back?"

I asked curiously hands still working the keys of the instrument gently pondering what to do. I could run but, where? I had a cliff behind me and this thing in front. I'm sure if I jumped it would attack; and if I tried to plow passed it... it would attack. I didn't fancy anything it might be planning to do to me for catching it's creation.

Mind kept running the options finding none of the outcomes very... clean... or survivable; then again Why was I so certain this thing would kill me? It hadn't been violent yet. if anything it kind of seemed hypnotized. My music? could it be it was keeping this whatever the fuck it was calm? Well well; as long as the batteries didn't die I could just keep playing and walk back to my dorm with this thing following as far as I knew. I could easily do it if I put my mind to it but, first thing first; I had to return my captive thing.

"I'm fine with giving it back."

I showed no fear as I had none; I wasn't afraid of dying here, if it was meant to be it would be and there was nothing I could do about it but, try my best to make sure it wasn't meant to be.

Calmed by the music thus far Aegir hardly followed her stream of thoughts. Normally he would not have had had a problem with reading what was upon her mind, delving into it and prying free whatever secrets that might be entwined beneath the surface. In this state he had not been as sharp as he normally was. His focus had lacked on near everything, his surroundings fading into obscurity, his mind, which would have normally spun through a thousand different scenarios, plans and back up plans by this stage had been kept in a serene state that only music seemed to be capable of lulling him into. Some would have probably described him as being in a dazed or perhaps a lax state of mind.

Even his body had showed displays of this for his tentacles had been rigid for the most part, especially those few that had rung his mouth. They were renown for keeping busy, constantly moving in some fashion though now they drooped as his form slithered forth then halted a modest distance from her. Not yet close enough to spring upon her which gave her some space for comfort. Aegir had not even realized his miscalculation in factoring distance into the equation. As slow moving as he was Aegir usually considered his approach carefully. His traps were often well laid to ensure his success. Today was just pure sloopiness upon his part. He didn't even have the veil of a disguise, nor had he gone unnoticed. That had only happened once before and had he been able to recount that incident in the here and now (had his mind not been so foggy at present) he would have quickly realized that music had been envolved in that situation as well.

But what was done was done. A question cast from her lips reached him causing his mind to stir away from the state it had been lulled into. Just a tiny nudge though not potent enough to brake the enchantment that held sway over him. Her question had been spoken plainly, there had been no musical inflection to her words though that had been soothed over by her continuous playing. He was brought into enough awareness to answer her question however though his eyes still lingered upon her, notably her hand as it glided itself over the keyboard.

Baaack? His telepathic word had been drawn out as if he were mimicing mental speech for the first time in his life only showing how much of a daze he had been in. There was a lengthy pause before he continued in a clearer tone. Why yes, Lilian.

No need to explain how he knew her name, Aegir had barely focused in on her question enough to realize that she was speaking of the captured node. His senses normally would have been opened enough to read her thoughts, to get a feel of her in order to adjust and plan accordingly. Not today, that simply wasn't going to happen and while he had no shortage of tricks at his disposal Lilian would find that for the moment she was safe.

Safety was important to me; and right now I felt an over flowing amount of it from the situation as I shifted my keyboard abound my neck by it's strap all the while still playing the instrument. it seemed to be my lifeline for now. With my single free hand I opened the thermist and poured the contents; including the creature, onto the ground. She smiled slightly to thing ad the floor and nudged it as it quickly shifted and returned to it's creator's side. It had only gotten lost because it was young from what I could tell.

I nodded to Aegir still playing my tune before speaking.

"The name's Lilian Love Valentine... what about you?"

I tried being civil to this creature seeing if it would indeed give me an edge if I weren't a screaming blithering idiot like they were in the movies or a combative cruel martial artist or spell hurler like they were in hentai. No clue if this thing had anything in relation to those subjects but, it was better to try than to just ignore the possibilities that existed. I took a step forward playing my keyboard with both hands out of memory with a smirk seeing how the being reacted to my motions.

If worse came to worst; I always had my pyro-kinesis to fall back on to defend myself. I was sure fire would hurt it since it wasn't burning itself... and did look like a squid.

The sweet melody, like the plucking of the strings upon a harp, had been mesmorizing. His body swayed as if caught up in a breeze though there had not been one at present, those white eyes of his had been focused upon her craft almost as if he had been spell bound with the movements of her dexterous hands over those bone white and midnight black keys. Entranced his mind had been dimly aware of the release of his node only drawing upon that fact when she brought his attention to it. Her words had been like a gentle stirring, the soft shake you gave to someone that had been fast asleep in an effort to awaken them from their slumber.

Lazily one of his eyes twisted to the side so that he could draw in the sight of his node crawling amongst the dampened grass as it rushed towards him. Seeking out the safety of its parent the node managed to scramble across the earthen ground as Lilian posses her words to him boldly stepping forward as she did so. He registered no fear from her though in this clouded state he had not been picking up anything from her due to his distraction. His mind had focused in upon the moment, his eyes studying the portrait of her form as she stood in front of him. Somewhere at the back of his mind he struggled with his purpose here, his goals, his aims though with each passing moment they were dwindling away into nothingness for he had lost track of them virtually completely.

THWACK!

The sound resounded loudly and though no residual crunching of bone had been heard there had been a shrill squishing sound that had left Aegir's node as little more than paste upon ground. The thing crushed flat with a lightning quick flick of one of his tentacles that propelled itself upward into the air then fell down as sharply as a gavel to end the existance of his creation. Ri, it had meant last in his tongue. Final was perhaps a closer translation. It had been a reminder to Aegir not to produce more than five nodes at a time least they join forces against him. He had no use for a node that could not carry out its function and purpose. Ri had proven to be useless, defective in that it was unable to remain hidden, unable to avoid being captured ...

For a long second Aegir glanced down upon the stain that had once been Ri. His tentacle flicked once discarding the gelatin remains of the mollusk-like creature from the appendage. It may have seemed as if the spell had been broken, shattered in that he was free to act though that had not been the case for his tentacles had relaxed at once, his composure nonthreatening, well as about nonthreatening as one would have expected from a creature such as himself. The music still maintained its hold upon him the temporary lapse being triggered by his survival mechanism purely autonomous in dealing with the wayward creation.

Aegir ... he spoke sluggishly into her mind as his gaze came upon her own. He may have seemed inert, may have seemed totally out of it though there were still a few things that he was aware of. One being the melody for he had focused upon it so intently as to become absorbed in those very chords that she was playing. It rose and fell like waves crashing against the shore, shorter notes preceeded by longer, more pronounced ones the tappering off to shorter sweeter sounds. If he had predicted it correctly she was about ready to invoke one of those harsher notes and though he had not planned for it Aegir's mind was frightingly quick when the situation warranted it. He would react then mostly on an instinctual level, a quick illusion meant to alter her own mental perceptions. In this case it would be sound for he would dampen her mind's ability to register the very harmonics that had been emitted from her instrument in effect making her believe that it was producing not a sound at all even though it would be functioning perfectly fine. A deception like that generated upon the fly was easy enough for him to pull off, though if she continued to play the effects would be broken readily enough his mind becoming distracted with the sound a few short moments after the sharpness of the note had run its course.