Inkwell

Name: Inkwell
Classification: Sentient Fluid
Size: Variable. Approximately 1 L minimum volume
Shape: Variable. Non-Morphic rat or raven most common
Color: Black

"Seriously guys, where did Inkwell go? You go to pour yourself a liter of stout and it might meet your end instead!"

Despite its small size, Inkwell is an extremely dangerous organism. It can move like the creatures it imitates, and it can flow as freely as water. Direct contact with Inkwell can be completely harmless at which point it has been likened to silky to rubbery texture. It can also be lethal should it decide to invade a body or begin dissolving it on contact. Inkwell is an obligate carnivore, and while it usually settles for bits of steak or chicken, it can and has consumed people in their entirety. This latter behavior is common by the imitation Inkwell weapons dubbed Poisonwell. Containing Inkwell requires a seamless glass, metal, or mineral container because it will digest and break the rubber similar seals often used as o-rings.

Despite the risks posed by Inkwell, it is generally docile and content to observe. The name derives from the earliest known attempts by Inkwell to communicate. Records show that the color of its body was originally a pale blue prior to consuming the contents of an inkwell which rendered its color black. It has since used its tail as a rat as a writing implement to communicate clearly with others by writing in black in with the tip of its tail. The only other times when Inkwell has communicated with someone have involved enveloping the person’s head or invading the skull to some degree in order to make a sort of communication link that none have enjoyed.

Inkwell has the ability to flow, and even when it consists of only a liter of volume, it can stretch this volume across the entirety of a person’s body. This usually ends either with the consumption of the target or a transient period where the target is rendered unable to struggle as Inkwell moved by using the body as a scaffold. In the latter case the targets were both injured and either beings Inkwell favored or obviously important to someone Inkwell favored.

Highly resistant to kinetic damage, Inkwell can splatter only to reform its mass afterwards by collecting the droplets. Inkwell can flow even at extremely low temperatures. It takes dry ice to slow it down significantly, and it will become a rubbery solid at cryogenic temperatures. It is still stable even up to nearly 1000 C which makes it indifferent to some low grade ignition sources such as a candle or a cigarette, but it will avoid most sources of fire. Testing on Poisonwells shows that they will smoulder and burn if heated long enough. It has been suggested that Inkwell, the parent from which they were made, is more durable than the knockoff, weaponized Poisonwells, but none have been willing to test Inkwell directly. Inkwell does not like extreme heat and has verified such in writing.

Inkwell and Poisonwells are never allowed to meet. Inkwell does not approve of their creation, and the only time the two types were present resulted in Inkwell taking control of the Poisonwells and making them destroy themselves after destroying those who were so proud of having made such horribly imitations of it.

While Inkwell does not appear to age in any way, it does not know its origin nor does it seem to care to learn it. It often resides in libraries where it can be found reading quietly with the aid of friends to help it get new books. It enjoys riding on shoulders or on top of heads, especially when doing so involves sharing a fast ride such as go-kart racing or downhill skiing. It has been passed down for several generations within a single family, and it tends to be treated as a member of the family including sharing meal times. On occasion, more so in the past, it has gone on adventures as served as a scout as well as a lock pick and a saboteur.

Origin

The actual source of Inkwell is thought to be a planetary system with a red dwarf star at its center. Two exoplanets exist in the Goldilocks zone, but evidence suggests that magnetosphere failure caused one of them to lose it atmosphere to solar wind. The other world remains somewhat earth like, and there is evidence that another race had long come and gone and left behind their terraforming systems. Settlers and explorers were quick to take to these machines and make a new habitable world with them.

The dead planet, as it came to be called, showed all the hallmarks of having been habitable and perhaps even by the same race that brought terraforming machines. Rich in metallic ore as well as artifacts, the dead planet soon had colonies of its own dotting its surface. The discovery of large oil and hydrocarbon deposits fueled expansion and boosted the nearby habitable world. This eventually resulted in the excavation of a strange, dark rock. It was sent for analysis.

About the time the rock was found to be a frozen fluid of some kind, and that this dark, oily material had an intelligence, the codename Inkwell was established. When communication was established with Inkwell, its warning, which it had apparently been trying to get across, came too late. Distress signals were coming from all colonies, and attempts to retake them were foiled by much larger but equally dark and fluid masses like Inkwell. A new quarantine was established around the system, and any attempts to leave were shot down. In the end, the ruins left behind looked like a new version of the ruins that had attracted the attention of colonists and scholars alike.

Inkwell's cooperative nature earned it just enough respect that it was not destroyed, and in its own way, it has expressed that not everyone is always hungry, but most are.