Reincarnated as a Spider (Draft/Writing practice)

‘Sound insulation of this treehouse is pretty good, the inside is a bit barren but that’ll change… I don’t think there’s anything important on today’s agenda that needs my full attention. So! I can finally spend some time for myself. There was something Alice wanted. I'll start with that. And that being… inability to jump. I can jump… just not with spider legs… apparently that was what Alice wanted to do during that encounter with the giant. When it did that sweep, she tried to jump over it thinking that she could. Obviously the result is that she received a facefull of dirt and gravel. After all before then, I and by extension she was in a single body having a humanoid elven form who obviously had the anatomy and legs muscles to jump, quite well might I add, they’re almost like a trapeze artists, emulating their unique movement method is no cakewalk.’

• ‘…must…learn to jump…’
• ‘Can’t you just… you know use mimicry when you need to?’
• ‘…no…important…’

‘Any attempts to dissuade her has ended in a failure. She is insistent on it… While it might seem like a trivial problem… it’s not an invalid one either. In precarious situations like the encounter with that giant the mobility to run away or dodge attacks are what’s going to save my life, if it comes to the point where I can’t use stealth to avoid such situations. I’m just unsure whether she's envious that she can’t jump or if it came from sound observation… the former is more likely………’

• ‘We share a mind, you can’t hide something like that…’
• ‘you… invasion of privacy…!’
• ‘Wha-? where did you even learn that term-
  Oh of course… Hey! That’s just as much of an intrusion if you’re going to cite privacy laws!’

>Notice. Anatomical limitation disallows muscle tissue to facilitate the method of locomotion related to jumping. Suggested action; educement of ⟨ Kindred ⟩ Branch; 〔 Conjure 〕, subunit « Autonomous Cardiovascular Control » allows administrators to use hemolymphatic fluids to jump.

‘Right on cue as always… Is that a new type of spider…? So it alternates between a passive and new spider… Last improvement was intensified venom, then a new type of spider and now a passive, the next one should be spider right? Let’s see, how about three points to improve Conjure?’

>Revising…

‘Eeeyy, I was right! Anyway that looks good, go ahead. Before we try this out we need to find somewhere that’s open…’

• “Dryssia I’m heading out for a bit, hold the fort down for a while won’t you?”
• “Okay!”

The tree spirit was atop of her oak tree holding a peculiar pose…

‘She hasn’t moved from there for hours now, is she sunbathing…? Is that why she’s T-posing to increase her surface area? Just leaving here alone might not be a good idea… Let’s meet our new friends shall we?’

Combing through her hair, pulling out two hex crawlers…

‘Congratulations you two have been chosen for the experiment.’

She began inducing metamorphoses after setting down the crawlers she chose…

⟨ Conjure ⟩

↳ ‹ Bride of Death (A.Perniciosa) ›¹Forming from Perniciēs (meaning ‘to kill/slay outright’) and -ōsus (meaning ‘prone to’ and ‘full of’) it can be translated as ‘Baleful spider’ or the much longer but cooler sounding ‘Spider full of slaughter’. You get to decide which way to call them.

Median legs short compared to lanky front and back legs. They all reach a height taller than its body despite being arched over, shortened. Legs banded with alternating gray and white and its whole body covered tiny granular spots of black dots. Notwithstanding its large body far larger than an average human’s it had small fangs and smaller eyes in disparity to its large oval shaped orb abdomen. On it a single bright pink line with eye-catching red edges. It was the first of Alicia’s Kindred spirit to have such vivid and deep colors. In nature, bright and showy colors like this would be ill advised for hiding. But they also conveyed messages. And this one had much to say about its exceedingly toxic nature…

>Unit evaluation: Bride of Death. Anti personnel specialist.

‘I hope you’re more than just pretty colors… alright next…’

And the other…

⟨ Conjure ⟩

↳ ‹ Mother of the Hunt (A.Venatrix) ›²Much simpler latin word simply meaning ‘Huntress’ but going deeper into it’s etymology can also be translated to ‘Hunting mother’ or ‘Mother of the Hunt’ by the following logic: Venatrix forms from the verb ‘Venor’ (I hunt) to noun ‘Venator’ (Hunter) plus ‘Trix’ (used to make feminine agent noun) to make the word venatrix(Female hunter or simply Huntress). The trix suffix cognates with Sanskrit suffix ‘tri’ from Janitri (Mother). I thought it would be much more memorable to call their Genus(?) as ‘The mother of the Hunt’ rather than just calling them ‘The Huntress’ although admittedly it is a weak connection.
Venatrix on Wiktionary

In opposition to the previous familiar, this one hadn’t grown much in size, from a size being able to envelope itself on and around a finger to a size of basketball. Its cephalothorax is large, possessing numerous eyes but four of them stood out by their sheer size. Pairs of median eyes were large enough to cover most of their face not already claimed by the chelicerae and the fangs. Their pedipalps concealed the colorful and deadly fangs behind itself.

>Unit evaluation: Mother of the Hunt. Reconnaissance, Hunting experts. Specialized sentries.

‘They have those puppy dog eyes… twice as much as a puppy, that should make them twice as cute doesn’t it? They’re big by my standards but small by this world’s standards… I think it’s better for me to not think too much about it…’

‘The crypt weavers were the point defense units if I recall correctly, few of them and some of the newcomers should be enough to secure the area and protect Dryssia while I’m gone.’

• ‘Oy! Come say ‘Hi’ to your new neighbours.’

Imperceptible message was sent out to her kindred idling in various places calling them up to return.

‘Now for some more…’

⟨ Conjure ⟩

↳ ‹ Bride of Death (A.Perniciosa) ›

↳ ‹ Mother of the Hunt (A.Venatrix) ›

Copious amounts of each of the new types of spiders were created and when she had finished creating more, the crypt weavers returned to her place.

• ‘Seems like more or less everyone’s here. Here’s the plan: I want the crypt weavers to spread out and hold positions leading up to this place, connect your webs if you can. Brides will situate themselves on their webs and help them protect it. Hunteresses will be the scouts on the ground. Patrol the perimeters, if anything wanders too close shoo them off but if it’s dangerous notify the others, do not confront anything you can’t take on alone. If anything makes it through I want you to come and let me know.’
• ‘Everyone got their roles right? Good, get a move on. I’ll be back shortly.’

‘Ah! They're a bit intimidating when they just start moving at the same time… Like a disciplined army… that makes me have little peace of mind, barring the initial shock.

One of the hunteresses was waving its legs trying to catch Alicia’s attention.

• ‘What, what is it?’
• ‘………’
• ‘You want to ride my hair… No! You’re the hex crawler I turned into a huntress aren’t you? Even if you change into different species you’re still the same eh?’
• ‘… ……’
• ‘Ugh! Listen, you’re about the same size as my head there’s no way I’m carrying you around like that. Besides, you should be helping the others.’
• ‘…… … ……’
• ‘They’ll be all right? Fine you can come along. Just not on my head.’
• ‘…!’

‘Okay! Time to learn how to jump.’

---

Going out of their way looking for a suitable location to experiment they found a sparsely vegetated place near hills. Few trees that resided there meant there was ample space.

• ‘Okay let’s try and aim for that branch up there… but how do I control my heart…’
• ‘…i will try…’
• ‘Sure thing.’

Some ways off Alice attempted her jump… to Alicia it felt like the wind was knocked out of her and a brief period of sense of impending doom set in. Her vision was completely functional as she saw enough to know that she was spinning but to her felt as if the world went dark for a second. Next thing she knew, her face was planted firmly in the ground sliding against the soil. Somehow she was turned upside down.

Incoherently flailing around she managed to turn rightside up coughing and gagging, spitting out the slightly moist dirt out of her mouth:

• “The hell was that!”

Managing to look around she was right in front of the tree.

• ‘i did it…’
• ‘You mean you jumped? How does jumping make me feel like I’m dying?!’

>Notice. Act of jumping achieved by rush of Hemolymphatic fluids rushing to lower extremities. Hydraulic pressure causing limbs to snap open with force. Enabling ability to jump.

Administrator discomfort caused by lack of vital fluid flow to the central nervous system and the cardiovascular system from excessive force applied. Acclimation to G-Force and low oxygen environment underway… standby.

‘Oh I just casually had a heart attack AND I almost fainted. Excellent. Next time I’ll know from what I’m DYING FROM!’

• ‘i… am sorry…’
• ‘Eh don’t sweat it… I’ll get used to it… eventually. I hope. Let’s not be as forceful this time… I’m not very excited about having a heart attack and getting a deep whiff of earth. I think there was too much force applied to the back legs… and I did a frontflip into the ground. Let’s do it a bit evenly.’
• ‘……. …?’
• ‘Yes I’m trying to jump. What abo- Cheeky bugger you can jump… You’re a jumping spider! Hey Alice I found you a teacher.’
• ‘…!’
• ‘You can learn how to jump… But before that…’

⟨ Mirror Image ⟩

• ‘…You’re gonna have to practice on your own… I’ll just watch from here and… cheer you on.’

…

• ‘First raise your front legs and aim at the place you wanna go to,…’

After some time mimicking the Huntress’s method Alice was improving quickly.

• ‘…attach a lifeline thread to the ground you’re on and jump.’

Her progress was accelerated by Alicia’s feedback based on her observation and breakdown.

• ‘Remember to control your strength…’

And in a short amount of time Alice reached sufficient competency…

• ‘You still need to learn how to do short hops but not crashing into the tree like last few times are certainly an improvement.’

Alice was just simply elated to have been able to jump… Ground was littered in broken branches from previous failures. Alicia took some time to heal and reattach them with Floraekinesis…

---

After managing to learn how to jump, two spent more time exploring other methods of movement… one of which was a series of energetic flick flack flips. It wasn’t faster than just scurrying… on an even ground. However down hill it was much faster. The other one was rolling… almost in a cartwheel motion… again it wasn’t faster than sprinting on even ground but down hill it was the fastest. It’s only drawback was that the slope or the hill needed to have minimal obstructions whereas the flips could be done in rockier and more uneven terrain. Difference between the two methods of movement was that one was done laterally while the other was done horizontally… 

>Notice. Genomic mapping of Subject ‘Thunder goat (Caprinae Tornitua)’ has finished successfully. New conjuration option available.

‘Does that mean what I think it does…?’

‘Nice… I don’t know what I’ll conjure these goats for but It’s good to have the option. Hm hm… Well I think that’s enough for today… We’ve made pretty good progress for just a single day.’

While leisurely making her way back one of the huntresses from back home came to them leaping from one tree to another, until it landed in front of her.

• ‘…… … ……’

It’s median legs waved in the air, in patterns as if it was one of the ground control crew guiding a plane to land while it reported. Sometimes moving from side to side in almost a dancelike motion.

• ‘Quadrupedal furry thing is looking for me… What? Can you like, be  more descriptive?’

Giving up on conveying the message it instead directly sent imagery based on its memory to Alicia.

• ‘Oh that’s a Wolf… Really? You don’t know what a wolf is?
• ‘…  …’
• ‘You do? Just don’t know the words for it. Right.’

‘He looks familiar… isn’t that the wolf we saved? What does he want now I wonder… Wait… I just got an idea… If I can take him into kindred… I should be able to make more wolves eventually right?’

>Affirmation.

‘Great. Because most of my spiders… aren’t very uhm… PR friendly. Wolves are just bigger, wilder dogs. And since people are divided into cat or a dog person I should be able to win over at least half the people I meet…
I heard lithilines were just humanoid felines so if I can get them too… I can take over the world! or something like that.’

Only two entities knew of Alicia’s farfetched fantasy at that time… One was bedazzled while the other was calculating the chance of  success… Frighteningly it was much higher than anyone could ever have anticipated just not by the way she envisioned… No one knew how much though, and the exact number was lost in time as Alicia herself forgot about it and didn’t ask for the chance of success. And only one entity in precision knew just how close she was to world domination… Fortunately for the world Alicia would never go through with the plan and Alma wasn’t the type to point it out tactlessly…