Disclaimer: I do not own Chaotic
Boddle wasn't sure what he wanted in life, but he knew he could never be a warrior. It was a nice fantasy back when he was a kid, but like most people, he had to grow up eventually. His life took its coarse, and one day he was assigned to be in charge of the Kiru arsenal. It was a good job for the creature; repairing battlegear that managed to get broken during battles, occasionally making a new weapon to help his tribe, and having the pleasure of seeing Intress when Maxxor sent her to see how things were going- although most of the time Maxxor was with her when she visited. But it was mostly keeping things organized and clean, which was secretly Boddle's favorite part of the job.
He kept telling himself he had everything he could ever want, but something was missing. He would never admit to it though. He had a safe, privileged life and the job of his dreams. He knew he didn't want a mate because women were too difficult for him to understand and being with another male didn't seem logical to him. But then what did he want? The older he got, the more he wondered. He was running out of time to figure it out, but he didn't have time to just sit around and think about it.
The fact that he could never figure it out bothered him more than he cared to admit. Boddle was one of the smartest creatures in the world of Perim. He could solve the most complex of equations with just his oversized brain and had created some of the most high-tech battlegear in the Overworld. It should not have been so hard to figure out what was missing in his perfect life, but Boddle honestly didn't know, and it was becoming more and more obvious that something was bothering him.
He tried to distract himself with his work. He was becoming obsessive over it, and even Maxxor began to get concerned. When humans started to visit Perim, Maxxor started putting guards inside the arsenal. Boddle didn't pay much attention to them; they did their job and he did his, and somehow them being there made him feel more aware that something was wrong with his life. Once again, he hid himself from the feeling by distracting himself with his work.
When he heard a rumor that humans used their 'scans" of creatures to become them for short periods of time, Boddle felt that feeling again, but this time it came with something else. There was a thick blanket of fear over that old emotion, and Boddle was now convinced that it was best to just ignore that feeling that had been there for so long.
He quickly came to the conclusion that the emotion resembled a cat, hiding when approached by an unknown creature or new circumstances. He looked back on how he had covered the feeling with his need for work when it was eventually met with the feeling of frustration over not knowing what it was about. The emotion had his itself from the new feeling. The presence of the guards had caused it to hide itself in more work. Now those otherworldly beings were in his world, and he knew the emotion was hiding underneath all the fear of these strange beings.
He tried to convince himself that the emotion was nothing more than curiosity, but he knew it wasn't true. He tried even more than ever to hide the emotion from himself by burying himself in his work. It was suffocating him, but it was better than the panic he was starting to feel at the thought of humanity. The panic always came with that other emotion, but he had given up on figuring out what it was.
But then that day came along. Call it what you will; fate, coincidence, luck- it doesn't change what happened. At started just like any other day, and Boddle was confident that it would end like one. Then that voice called out.
"Tom!" Boddle knew it was a human. He wasn't sure how he knew. He had never seen or heard a human before but he just knew that some human had gotten caught by the guards.
He wanted to see what a human looked like, and judging by the way that one was calling out his friend's name, it was a good opportunity to see two of them before the guards took them away. But the spider webs and the trapped guards made it clear that the humans were not the only intruders.
Long story short, Boddle let a human scan him. He couldn't blame the human for making up a story about using it, but he was amused.
Tom.
That name became very important to many creatures in the Overworld. Even Maxxor and Intress became attached to the human, but Boddle was certain that the bond between them was different somehow. Tom visited the leader from time to time, but he visited Boddle more. And although Boddle wouldn't admit to it, it started to hurt whenever the human ported out.
The sound of the porting reminded Boddle of that feeling he used to get, but the still unnamed emotion never truly returned.