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This was the first time Clonelin accompanied Collin for mining.
Collin liked to do his things alone, but today was one of the days Clonelin wouldn’t leave him, so he decided to just “fuck it” and leave the creature be.
And actually, it was pretty calm. Collin isn’t the type of person that talks alone, keeping his things inside his mind unless he’s recording a video (which makes sense to speak to yourself because you’re talking with the person watching), and Clonelin seemed to catch that, so the entity never tried talking with Collin while they explored the cave.
After a long time trying to find diamonds, they fortunately found a mineshaft. The player instructed his clone to start searching for anything that could be considered valuable in the chests while Collin did the same and also tried to find some diamonds.
They started the work, and after some minutes Clonelin appeared behind Collin with a bunch of coal, one diamond, torches and a bunch of bread.
Collin was almost picking the stuff from the entity’s hands until he decided to look at its face. Clonelin was clearly hurt, probably attacked by some monster mobs, spiders if Collin was to guess, but the thing that interested the player wasn’t the fact that Clonelin was hurt (even though that got him worried).
Instead of having blood coming from the cuts on its face, there was off-whitish liquid coming from it. It didn’t look like a liquid, more like some sort of slime and kind of gooey.
Collin looked confused at Clonelin before pulling the creature’s face close with his hands and using his thumb to feel the strange liquid.
The clone let out a small whine but let the player examine his cuts, a hurtful expression in his face that made Collin feel the urge to take care of it.
“What is this?” - Collin asked, picking up the liquid with his pointer finger and bringing it close for him to smell. It smelled like… Rain and wet grass, the same smell that Clonelin always has (and that Collin noticed that the clone chose to smell like that because the human liked those smells).
“form… t ru3 form.” - Clonelin tried to explain, but it only let the other more confused.
“True form? What?” - Collin expressed his confusion, finally picking up the stuff from the clone’s hands and putting it in his inventory. - “Your true form is goopy and shit?”
Clonelin nodded, and the player couldn’t help but notice how it seemed worried and sad at the way Collin said it. He felt his face burn in embarrassment.
“S-Sorry I-… Fuck, I didn’t mean to sound rude, it’s just… Uh… I-I didn’t expect your true form to be like that…? I expected you to be like more… More like an octopus? Because, you know, they uh… They can change their color and shit.” - Collin tried to explain, and held back a chuckle when he saw Clonelin’s eyes sparkle at his explanation.
Collin let the other’s face go, saying for him to follow him back to their home, so he can properly take care of Clonelin there.
~
When they finally reached Collin’s home, the player instructed Clonelin to sit on the bed as he picked some first aid kits so he could take care of Clonelin’s cuts.
He grabbed some gauze and some disinfectant, working on cleaning the cuts before he put a Band-Aid on them, those types with unicorns and cars to decorate it.
Collin couldn’t help but chuckle on how stupid and cute Clonelin looked right. - “Feeling better?”
The creature nodded. - “Don t f3el hurt, b ut than k u.”
Collin sighed, happy that this was solved out and laid on the bed, gesturing for Clonelin to come along so they could cuddle.
~
A few days passed since the incident happened in the mineshaft and there was one thing that never left Collin’s mind: what was Clonelin’s true form?
He kept imagining how it looked. Did he look humanoid but in a strange, goopy way? Like a Ditto from Pokémon that tried to take a human form? Or did Clonelin look more like No Face from Spirited Away?
He felt his face getting hot. Maybe Clonelin looked monstrous, maybe dangerous in some way. Could a stupid and silly entity like Clonelin be dangerous? And why the heck did Collin find that hot?
Collin then decided it was time to ask his boyfriend.
~
Clonelin was messily trying to make up Collin’s bed when the human entered the house.
He approached it, helping it finish the work the other had done correctly. Then Collin turned to Clonelin. - “Can I ask you a question?”
The other nodded, his eyes closing up in a happy expression. Collin smiled back, stopping to think how he could phrase what he wanted to say.
“So… H-Hows your true form like?”
Clonelin looked at him in surprise, leaving his hands from the bed and looking fully at Collin. The player hated (and secretly loved) when the creature put all his attention on him; it felt eerie, and that’s the only time Collin could ever be scared of Clonelin.
“sho w y0u.” - Clonelin said, pointing at itself.
“Show me? You can? Wait, you’re able to leave your disguise anytime?” - The human asked in surprise and obvious curiosity.
The clone didn’t say anything; he only backed away and seemed to focus. Collin paid attention while he saw Clonelin’s form slowly and slowly dissipate and turn into a gooey off-white mess on the floor. Instead of being disgusted, Collin couldn’t help but be more and more curious.
The clothes that Clonelin used were discarded as his form took that goopy shape. Before the player could ask anything, the slimey mess started to take another form, and Collin could see a snail shell form, along with something that clearly resembled a snail’s form and antennae forming in its head.
Then it formed pure white big eyes on where Collin supposed to be his face, then cartoon-like arms formed from its torso. It was… Weirdly cute, like everything related to Clonelin.
Collin noticed how those antennae on his head were the same as the antennae from Clonelin’s copied form, but instead of being orange, they were that different color of white.
The creature looked at him, and the player could see it was searching for some sort of approval from him. Collin walked closer to it and kissed its head. Strangely, the slimey liquid didn’t stay on his mouth, which meant that it wasn’t sticky. Thankfully.
Clonelin made a sound that seemed to be a chuckle, and Collin couldn’t help but smile. - “So… A snail? Didn’t expect you to have a form similar to a snail. It’s cute… Pretty, even.”
The entity used its gooey hands to wrap around the player, pulling him into a hug. Collin got surprised at first, but then hugged the other back, using his hands to feel around the entity’s face.
It didn’t seem to have a mouth before Clonelin opened it, and Collin could see that snakish tongue again. So… It seemed it was a Clonelin thing then.
He leaned in and kissed the other, starting a small tongue kiss session before he backed away, only to look at Clonelin again. - “So… This goopy mess takes the form that you want?”
“if i k now wh1c h form to t4k 3.” - Clonelin explained, tightening their hug. Collin blushed, but kept listening to Clonelin. - “so t that me4ns u ri ghw.”
“Alright…” - The human said, tapping for Clonelin to let him go. It did, and Collin decided to sit by his side. - “You’re pretty fucking cute in this form… Why didn’t you show me earlier?”
“Thou ght u be ssc4ared.” - The entity said, and Collin could see those big white eyes form a sad expression. How the fuck does this creature even kill?
“I don’t think I would… I mean, I’ve been all these weeks thinking about how your true form would look like, and even the most monstruous ones made me…” - Collin gulped down what he said, and he knew his face would be covered in red right now.
However, Clonelin understood what the other was going to say, so he wrapped himself around Collin and giggled, pressing his face against the human’s cheek as a small kiss. - “i lov u.”
Collin pulled Clonelin closer, pressing his mouth against the other’s again. - “Hm… I love you too..”
Then Collin, with difficulty, got up, making a gesture of cleaning his hands from dirt or sand. - “Alright, I need some resources so… Wanna help me out?” - Said in the most neutral tone he could achieve right now.
Clonelin nodded, taking time to change into his cloned form again, and picking up his clothes, accompanying the player outside the house.