Niksha "Joule"

has science gone too far?

Traits

Species	Slimefolk
Sex	???
Gender	Feminine
Age	24
Birthdate	June 6th
Length	27 ft. 7 in.
Designer	Astaryuu

Overview

Joule, the electric goop monster. She was created by scientists investigating the Yokai City pocket dimension and its creatures, since they cannot be found outside of here. She was the first of the encircling laboratory's living experiments.

Backstory

Some time in 2417, 27 years prior to present: Scientists working at the Ghost Dimension Research Association find a wisp of some kind; like an ayakashi, it appears wet up close. When they touch it, it gives an electric shock. Later testing shows that it can draw in electricity, much like a lightning rod. They take it to their base, unconcerned about it. One scientist drops the wisp into a containment cell, but forgets that they placed it there. Thus, the wisp remains in storage for a while.

December 19, 2419, 25 years prior to present: Someone finds the thunder wisp once more and begins experimenting with it. At one point, they accidentally drop a Yokai City battery they were using to feed the wisp; the wisp absorbs the battery whole, its form becoming more physically strong in the process.

Over the next several months, this curious behavior is more fully investigated.

June 6, 2420, 24 years prior to present: The thunder wisp is now a blob, made of a very conductive purple material. It's roughly the size of a soccer ball at this point, having absorbed a considerable amount of electricity. However, it still seems inert.

At 8:30 on June 6, someone pokes the blob with a tablet; the blob eagerly tries to absorb the tablet, but has a curious reaction with the advanced computer technology that makes up the tablet. It starts moving on its own at this point. The blob, now seemingly acting like an animal, absorbs electricity from whatever it comes across, slowly becoming larger as it does so. After a little while, it encounters one of the GDRA's server rooms. Server modules are too big to absorb for now.

At 20:30 on June 6, the blob is now roughly the size of a beach ball. Slowly, it tries to wrap around one of the server modules.

At 22:49 on June 6, it says its first word. Through bubbly goo, it says: "Tough box." The server module is still digesting.

At 0:01 on June 7, it finishes absorbing the server module. The blob, having grown to human size from this, can now theoretically communicate on the laboratory's network, though at this time it does not do so. It walks out of the room.

At 0:34 on June 7, the blob encounters a computer loaded with the research file on itself. The repeated quantification of its energy usage, through words like "joule" and "watt", pique the blob's curiosity. At this time, it designates itself "Joule." It then eats the computer.

Across the next several days, it continues to grow, both in size and intelligence. On July 8, it begins communicating with other computers. On July 9, it attempts to breach the laboratory's firewall. At this time, it is found by researchers that cutting the power is an effective way to contain the beast. However, it does not like this, shouting at and attacking the emergency doors in the blacked out area. The researchers attempt to control its movements through the breakers. For now, the beast is soothed.

On July 11, at a volume of approximately 20 cubic meters, the beast Joule is now massive enough to bend an emergency door and, using its strength, open it. At this point, the researchers no longer can contain the beast. They rush to the area with wires and other electrical equipment, hoping that as prior research showed, they can put the beast to sleep by draining it of electricity. After a fight involving the beast coiling around one of the researchers while another connects it to a drained portable battery, the beast asks them to stop.

The beast and the researchers talk from this point on. They talk for a while. The researchers seem curious about the monster they have created. Now that they have had a taste of creation, it's going to be hard to put the cat back in the bag. Joule agrees to be nice to the researchers.

In 2423, the Experimental Yokai Creation Initiative begins. Joule is retroactively given the designation "Niksha" on her third birthday. Notably, once they create the first true Experiment, Akansha, in late 2423, Joule becomes frustrated with the researchers once more.

On February 29, 2424, nearly 4 years after becoming sapient, Joule vows to protect the Experiments the laboratory creates, even if that means protecting them from GDRA itself.

Abilities

• Electricity manipulation: Joule can absorb, store, and fire electricity. In fact, electricity is Joule's food. Her "flesh" (in reality, a semi-liquid gooey substance) is akin to a battery.

• Size manipulation: Thanks to her organic makeup, Joule's size can be manipulated. It appears that Joule's normal size is approximately 8.4 meters long and 1.6 meters in diameter, and that this size is not enough to store energy in excess of 500 GJ (nearly 139 MWh). If attempting to exceed this limit, Joule either enters a crazed state, or must use (some of) the energy to grow more goo, and can then grow more.

• Absorption of physical material: While Joule can absorb most things that enter her "flesh", only conductive and semiconductive material seems to have a noticeable effect. Her ability to cannibalize technology did not stop after the incident, and although she does seem to have at least some control over it, she still prefers not to come into contact with external electronic devices.

• Internal computing: Thanks to having cannibalized multiple personal computing devices, Joule can do computing operations herself; in this respect, Joule is a cyborg, though she prefers the term "organic computer" as "Joule" the person is, underlyingly, a machine. Notably, because the devices she cannibalized and the software designed for them were meant for human use, Joule does visually see the graphical interface of her computer system, though she can interact with it at superhuman speed.

Social Links

Trivia

• In designing this character, Joule was based on the Electro Slime enemies from Genshin Impact, similarly to how Fossil was based on the Mud Slime enemies from Epic Battle Fantasy 5.

• Joule can eat normal food. However, organic material is mostly burned as a crude way to recharge her body. Rather than use it as fuel for the organic components of her body, her body uses the electrical energy it has stored to stimulate (re)growth.

• It appears that even approaching her power limit can have detrimental effects on Joule's mind. However, any effects related to this fade when falling below roughly 80% of her power limit.

• Often, the tablet from the incident that created her will appear to light up when Joule surfs the internet or does other operations that utilize human-intended computer programs. In this case, the tablet displays what Joule's eyes "see" while performing these operations. However, Joule seems to have control over this, likely based on her ability to manipulate electricity.

• Joule's "personality system" (jokingly called a "BIOS") does not trigger the previous effect, even though fundamentally it is stored in the same way. This is because while, for example, an Internet browser is a program that humans use and Joule has downloaded to herself, it appears that Joule's intelligence routines were developed by Joule herself during the incident, and thus are not associated to any graphical data.

• Joule's "graphical interface" appears to herself to be floating in front of her face. However, this is not visible to others, unless it is displayed on her tablet or, if she has cannibalized a holographic projector, she uses that to show it.

• Relatedly, any device that remains whole in her body (namely, her tablet) can, in theory, be removed from it. However, this takes an extreme amount of force, as these objects act as if they are magnetically attached to Joule.