Dreadnaut World-Adjacent Lore

As a scientist involved in sea terror research, his existence of a sea terror is...questionable. Ask him whether he thinks the company's research is ethical; he can't give you an answer. All he knows is that if he keeps doing his job, it'll help the public understand sea terrors better. This will make a better world for them to live in.

It will, won't it?
---

First emerging from the trenches as a small, unimportant creature, it simply picked the two animals it felt were the best. Leafy seadragons and their elegant-looking fins could hide it from predators, and deep sea isopods looked tough enough to survive any encounter. It wasn't until later on, that it realized mimics can only be a poor copy of the original-- with strengths of neither and the weaknesses of both. A lesson learned harshly in the mouth of another.

From there, it hid in shallow waters, fearful of the deep, despite it's origins. The world was much brighter on the surface, and through the clear waters, it watched. There were people playing on the beach, humans making strange motions in the water, and when everything was dark, strange sparkling corals would light up the shorelines. So it practiced. Glowing like those strange bright corals on the surface, it took on bioluminescence to replicate shimmering cities.

Naive.
The creature's glowing luminescence and unique form attracted the attention of a group of student scientists in the midst of their oceanic studies. At the discovery of a (potentially new) exotic creature, they took it back to their lab. A sparse lab filled bright lights, the stinging smell of disinfectent, and the uncomfortable hum of monsters. The seawater's gone bad. There was the constant murmur of loud noises and the occasional poke with a cold metallic tool at the creature's body.

Hurt. Cold. Discomfort. It slept, cradling memories of a simpler time. If one no longer looked like this, would they stop?

But it's a foolish concern.
It learned, that day, that humans were just animals fearful of the unknown. And against the crowd of fleeing humans and the wail of a earsplitting alarm it sat on the cold ground, surrounded by the broken shards of its enclosure.

Confused and alone, it stood up in its unfamiliar human form and silently took what it needed from the desolate lab before leaving. A lab coat, some extra clothes, some water.

---
It was a hot summer afternoon and the burning concrete scalded its feet with every step. Although the body was a mimic, the nerves were programmed properly. And it's not like the lab had extra shoes. It made its way to a bench under a tree and sat in resignation. What now...?

At that moment, a voice yelled towards it's direction.
"Hey! Are you a new student here?"
It tilted its head to look up at the unfamiliar human. "Where in the world are your shoes...?" The figure shook its head and muttered something about new alumni getting weirder before taking out a pair of hotel slippers from a large bag and tossing it to the dreadnaut. Then, the human took it by the hand started walking.

"Name?" The unknown human asked with cheerfulness. "Oh, nevermind, you can fill out all your paperwork at the office. It must be hectic, apologies, but I hope that you'll enjoy it here. The professors are all good people, and are willing to reach out...

Ah. The creature thought as the human trailed off on their tangent. So there are kind humans as well.

---

University was a huge learning experience for him. Teaching himself how to be human and learning science was difficult, as lab science requires quite a bit of ethics understanding. Many times he took the wrong route: while his projects produced astounding results, it was built upon the deaths of many subjects, even if they were simply sea creatures without much receptors for pain. His saving grace was a single professor. In the three years that he studied in that class, the professor would stay many hours after classes to talk with him about ethics, science, and gently correct his behavior. You can say that much of his personality is thanks to the actions of that one uni professor.

"Remember, science is a power to improve people's lives with. If the improvements of their lives were built upon the suffering of others, do you think that would make them happy?" "...Would it matter, as long as improvements are made?"

Non-CS Specific Lore
eternity - to never falter

His arm is a prosthetic. Perhaps once there used to be something there? Whatever it was, it was never human.
In fact, his entire existence is a joke. A hollow shell of a body. Really, the only thing that matters is the parasite living inside.
If you catch a glimpse on a bad day, or maybe an average day when the sun has receded and rainclouds approach on the horizon, would you see a dark pit of scuttering legs puppeteering around the sewn-up skin of a human?

...


Even if the world decided to get rid of him once and for all, he wouldn't really care.

He couldn't, after all. Monsters don't have emotions.

To him, what matters is improving the state of the universe. Underneath his neutral, ambivalent attitude, is something that cares for others. It can't be a heart. He doesn't have one. With this undisputed fact, can someone like this have humanity too?