Telltale

Description

The one known Telltale takes on the form of a small rodent species known as a springhare. Roughly half a meter tall, its shape is best defined not directly by the event-horizon like darkness of the central mass but the red and blue shifted light along its periphery. When oriented on an axis with its head being the up direction, it appears light swirls around the small figure so swiftly that is creates a blue shifted glow along the left side and a red shifted version on its right side. This unusual behavior of light is carried out along its limbs which including strong hopping legs and a long tail that ends in a generous tuft shape. The overall springhare shape appears to be very stable and mimics the motion of the actual species.

Like its body, the edges of its muzzle and eyes also have the red and blue shifted colors that make its eyes more blue on its right eye and red in its left.

Composition

Telltale is composed of a currently undefined form of matter that may have relations to dark matter or some other form of unknown material. The central mass can be divided by sufficient force, but the separated parts of Telltale's body generate a strong attractive force to bring it back together that actually intensifies with distance. Its body is otherwise described as rather soft and malleable. At least one account described it as chewy. Since said report was made first hand, it seems no harm came of gnawing on Telltale.

No one is certain as to what Telltale is actually composed of. Its attraction behavior is inverted from normal forces of nature much like the behavior of tachyons are to normal photons. It has been proposed that Telltale represents a missing component in physical theory, but the small creature has not been amenable top remaining in a research lab indefinitely.

Homelands

Telltale's people are almost unknown because their civilizations all occur near the event horizons of black holes. The likelihood of finding them is strongly tied to the size of the black hole, and therefore they tend to occur most often in the centers of galaxies where they inhabit the super massive black holes residing there. Like the black hole itself, these beings lack any form of magnetic field lines, and they possess only mass, spin, and charge. How they persist and even thrive in the edge of the event horizon is completely unknown. What is known is that most of their kind that end up in space are the result of individuals being ejected along the great jets that can occur around black holes. These ejected individuals consist of exiled beings, daring explorers, and no small number of the unlucky or overly curious that got too close to the launch sites.

Visual and auditory adaption

Telltale and its kin have learned to shape what appears to be a form of event horizon of their own making that makes this central mass into the forms of other beings it imitates. Photons near them are greatly accelerated like they may be around a black hole resulting in blue and red shifted light that also betrays their shape. The spin of their bodies can be determined by which side of them is red or blue shifted. While it is not accurate to call them tiny black holes, it is the best general description of their behavior.

Telltale are capable of emission and vibration in a number of modes. Their oscillations can be used to communicate by means such as radio or microwave. In places where beings communication using pressure waves, they have learned to vibrate at the right frequencies to act like small speakers and thus they can speak without actually having a mouth to do so.

Effects of Division and Fusion

Telltale can be divided. However, most of these divisions are short lived as the pair will eventually fuse together shortly after division. In very rare cases, telltale can be divided and kept apart at short distances long enough for the spin of one of the halves to undergo precession and eventually invert its spin at which point the two halves will no longer fuse. It is unclear if this is a valid means by which telltale reproduce, but both halves will eventually become fully functional and independent.

In circumstances where the two halves are immediately separated, they have a powerful attraction for each other that increases as the square of the distance between them. Attempts to keep two half isolated at distance usually end in powerful snap back reactions that being the two halves back into fusion. Because of this, only very short range separations have been observed to persist long enough to cause replication.

Cosmic Origin

In the earliest portions of the Big Bang before the physical forces separated and matter came into being, a number of special entities emerged. Fate guided the initial shape of the Bang with Chaos soon growing to guide the new universe. As the realm of Dream separated form the current iteration of the universe, Chaos brought into being the Chodonex as stewards and protectors of the universe against Darkness while Fate instilled the Ribbon Foxes to protect the fabric of spacetime.

It was after these dream aspects split away that other supernatural like beings came into existence. This was the time of the Telltale, the hints that there are forces and elements of physics not yet understood. they called the first micro-singularities their home, and they have expanded since then with pockets of them often populating supergiants so they are present when a black hole is formed.

Special Properties

Interstellar Transit

Ejected Telltale are not just trapped on a trajectory. They have that ability to exert incredible force once in open space almost like they had some properties of dark energy. This acceleration can be so severe that they pop into tachyon speeds which makes them appear to vanish in one place and emerge light years away. Telltale are most often found, if they can be found, near black holes, but it is possible to find ejected individuals around stars, especially large ones prone to supernova, and even on planets.

Gravity Negation

It probably makes sense for these small creatures to have some means to handle the crushing gravity of a black hole. It seems that these beings do not readily feel the effects of mass and gravity and instead rely on repulsive forces to position themselves. This means that most Telltale are only as affected by gravity as they want to be, often to imitate others around them. Left on their own, they are often gravity neutral, and as a result they can be seen floating around in rooms as if they were in microgravity. Those who know them long enough can readily recount stories of them falling asleep and getting sucked into a ceiling fan or bobbing at the ceiling like a forgotten helium balloon.

Shape Mimicry

The default shape for a Telltale is a sphere. Its the lowest energy version they have, and when they sleep away from home, they tend to turn back into a sphere usually between the sizes of a golf ball, most common, to a grapefruit for the largest of them. However, because they are made from unusual matter and energy, they are able to take on complex, continuous shapes that allow them to mimic the shape of living things. Most Telltale, once they lock in a shape, stay with it because every new shape adds more strain and makes it harder to change again. At the extreme, it may even cause fission if unchecked. Therefore Telltale are choosy in how they appear and tend to stay with their favored shape once they take one.

Amazing TellTALES

The Dark Heart

One particular who gained the name Glyph had the misfortune to be present when a friend of theirs was shot during a robbery. While not effective at getting back stolen goods, Glyph knew that these friends they had were fragile and prone to expiring when hit with almost anything. One high velocity rock struck their friend in the chest and tore through both heart and lung tissue. The wound should have been lethal, and while blood loss occurred, said person was still conscious and alive when medics arrived about ten minutes later. To their surprise, a black mass had filled both sides of the wound and prevented blood loss, but it went even further. Imaging revealed this black mass was holding the damaged margins of both lung and heart tissue together better than any surgeon could. Unsure of what to do, the doctors kept the person for observation. Glyph remained attached to the vital tissues for several months until lung and cardiac tissue had completely healed and regained strength.

The incident became known as the Dark Heart because of Glyph's dark color wrapped around and through the heart. Both Glyph and its friend remain active today.

Free Lunch

Solar flares and coronal mass ejections can pose a real threat to planets and even more to satellites around them. However, one particular world had earl detection of such events but no means to defend themselves from it. A series of record breaking ejections were detected with no means to respond to them. These mega flares were sure to not only knock out electronics in orbit but destroy most systems planet side as well as greatly increase radiation exposure. For a world completely dependent on its technology, this seemed like the end of times. However, one wandering Telltale was present and listening to all the communications chatter. It was also watching the look of dismay on the people, and it eventually made contact to understand why everyone seemed to frightened. When presented with the facts, it chirped and replied "I will be back." The tiny creature shot into the sky and vanished.

Not even an hour later, gravity wave sensors on the planet began going berserk. Observers began seeing black spots all over their star until it looked dithered as if printed in a comic. The mass ejection was due to hit in six hours, but it never made planet fall. The aurora, predicted to be almost a bright as daylight, never occurred. However, those in the day saw and massive shift in the color of the sky and even the star itself. Observatories focused all their attention on what appeared to be a gravity lens that had focused all the mass of the CME into a tight cone, and this cone was emitting brilliant blue and red light. The planet never experienced the blast of high energy particles.

Boggled, physicists could only report a form of gravity anomaly having formed between the planet and the discharge accompanied by conversion of matter and energy into huge waves of lower energy photons, mostly blue, red, and radio wavelengths. What was more is that the dithering field remained and shifted over time. The sea of darkness was determined to be billions of tiny objects only a few centimeters in radius swarming between the planet and the star like a filter.

Only after the event did the lone Telltale return. It was asked, "Did you do that?" to which it replied, "What did you do?"

It replied, "I told them I needed them to help some friends. They said they were busy. When I mentioned a free lunch, they were all in."

The cloud remains to this day, and it is one of the only stable non-event horizon locations where the Telltale can be observed. The major issue with their presence, however, was the massive radio background they generate during their normal conversations. It was a small price to pay for lasting protection from an angry star.