6 lets get wild

year 30 (Earth year 1980, 30 years till departure, )

Martian babies/toddlers have human babies beat in cuteness by a wide margin. This is due to the fact that I can understand how timelords feel when they speak to a baby. Martian baby talk is hilariously meaningless but delivered with every ounce of emotion and experience that the child is experiencing due to the fact that they are feeling everything for the first time their psychic broadcast paints a beautiful picture of awe and wonder.

I have taken to watching my many younger cousins and siblings as they learn of the world around them and broadcasting new sensations and joyous emotions to them to brighten whatever they may be feeling.

'They are amazing aren't they?' I am brought out of my silent reverie by a soft and strong voice, words enunciated in a slow deliberate cadence

J'onn J'onzz The Martian Manhunter floats beside me and I am at a loss for words for a moment. This guy is a legend on Mars, I would be starstruck even if he wasn't an awesome hero from my youth with the combination of the two I feel my Sergan (security organ) go into overdrive to cover up my psychic turbulence at his sudden appearance.

Mentally I turn down its functionality to show some more of my shock and excitement show through, it would be rude to completely stonewall the man.

'They are sir, every thought and experience is truly beautiful to them, I find it meditative to be among those few of use with truly no prejudice or spite' I respond after pondering exactly what I want to say to the most accomplished Manhunter on Mars, letting a few feelings of contentment and resigned sadness at the end of my message

J'onn turns to me and rests a hand on my shoulder

'There are many who will think themselves above you for things out of your control you must never bring yourself to their level, I can tell you are talented, not many are able to project abstract sensation as well as you. you will go far child' he responds with a confident tone as he turns to leave

'S'ol A'res, My name is S'ol A'res and I will go farther than any martian before me!' I project with every ounce of conviction and will I have.

J'onn pauses in the doorway

'Of that, I have no doubt'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Year 42 (Earth year 1992, 18 years till departure)

I first met J'onn when I was 30 (10 biologically) years old as I stood in silence playing with my younger family members and seemed to have been either very impressed or extremely sympathetic and managed to get me into a prestigious educational institute around 12 years later.

The reason why I suspect J'onn is that a white martian would NEVER get into that institution. On paper, it was a completely open-minded (heh) school for young talents and every applicant gets a fair shake, therefore it is obviously due to the failings of the white martian that there hasn't been one enrolled in its entire history.

So there I was a young repressed youth, going into the martian equivalent of college prep school and yale that glowed with the welcoming aura of an English country club in Kenya during the 1960's.

the following seven years are filled with showing up my peers, being belittled for showing up my peers, then finally being denied my doctorate on grounds of there being no evidence or examples of the behaviors I had documented extensively in my initial forays into mimicking the animals in the shallows of the deep forest. Despite recording my findings and evidence of my interactions with the different packs of animals, my findings were dismissed as simply setting up behaviors by infiltrating the groups.

The purpose of infiltrating the different animal groups was to truly understand their behavior, from their stress responses to their courtship rituals (never participated but paid close attention to the signals and messages sent psychically). My findings were not guesses or extrapolations on patterns although, of course, the latter was part of my data. They were completly backed up by my own experiences that had been recorded by my Mirgan (Mimic organ) and broadcast to the group of pompous Piccolo wannabes.

When they outright dismissed all of my data and their own experience I decided I would catalog every piece of data I could on every animal I could find from the shallows to the black depths that make up the labyrinth of The Black Trench. I would return with irrefutable evidence of their ignorance, hopefully with J'onn so the Green power club doesn't take credit and fuck me over.

With my goal in mind, I set off into the depths of the grand subterranean forest where monsters make a home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Year 54 (Earth year 2004, 6 years till departure)

I stalk silently on four digitigrade legs, and breath deeply. A world of information born upon the air is sorted instantly by an enhanced nose and a mind designed exactly for that task. two strange tentacles float weightlessly behind me seeming like weak sensory organs and not the swift instruments of death that they were (img here)

'go left loud' I instruct my hunting partner as I move to cut off my prey (img here)

I speed through the softly glowing bioluminescent undergrowth that lights the expanses of the deep forest. I hear a flurry of panicked movement and warning broadcasts as the herd of what I call space deer

I hear what sounds like the muffled crack of a whip and a startled cry as one of the hear suddenly stumbles, I respond by whipping my two tentacles forward in a blur and release the spines held at their tips throwing the projectiles directly through the space deer leading the pack

'strike now, let biggest and pregnant go' I instruct as the rest of my pack bursts from their hidden spots in the shade of tree size mushrooms and dense bushes in a flurry of claws, spines, and yelps and howls reminiscent of a maned wolf (called a roar bark give it a google it sounds wild)

I have been with this pack for the past year, I was with another herd of deer the year before working my way through the martian food chain and understanding each behavior and tactic and niche that every one of the beasts had. It was brutal and terrifying but incredibly beautiful and a truly unique experience to be predator and prey, to understand exactly what it feels like to be on the other side of a pack of white spines and to lead said pack of white spines.

The white spines while not the strongest, a position that belongs to the blind behemoths found in The Black Trench of the deep forest, are the second most dangerous by far. (Img for blind behemoth)

They are incredibly intelligent around the level of a human ten-year-old with only the hunt, eating the hunt, and hunting again on their mind. Well-versed in pack hunting and how to break up a pack, while also allowing some of their prey to escape so that they don't run out of food. Thankfully they are highly territorial and never leave their territory so they are easy to avoid if you know where not to go. This however made it incredibly difficult to infiltrate a pack due to them being incredibly insular and breeding very rarely. I managed to infiltrate the pack by taking the place of one of the weaker less social pack members and slowly integrating myself more and more.

There is one other creature that I have yet to attempt to catalog. This is due to the fact that the first time I encountered one it nearly killed me instantaneously, the only reason I survived was that I somehow phased and passed through the wall of the cavern. It was completely blind, move nigh silently, and most importantly had no psychic broadcast. The creature looked to have about as much brain activity as a particularly smart rock, this was quickly disproven as it tracked me over 50 miles all the way out of the black trench to the edge of the deep forest.

These strange silent pursuers would be my greatest challenge, I had no psychic broadcasts or instincts to copy from, and I had no visible social structure to infiltrate. The only way I would be able to learn anything about those creatures is to go back and get hunted until I understand them well enough to become them and truly conquer them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

year 55 (Earth year 2005, 5 years till departure)

'Fuuuuuuuuck, why did I think this was a good idea!? oh, you should totally study the silent superpredator that can track you from your slightest movement and sound, oh and packs a harder punch than most of the big beasts in the entirety of the deep forest' I mentally berate myself all while completely shielding my thoughts in order not to alert the strange creature. It stood completely still, giving no signs of life, until a small pebble lands softly 50 yards away from it when It burst into movement clearing the distance in a blur even to my enhanced eyes.

These creatures had the most advanced set of auditory organs I had seen during my years exploring the deep forest, it seemed that they were able to completely lock on and map their target based on one sound alone. They lived completely solitary lives, I have never seen two in the same place even when I intentionally crossed separate territories the controller of the territory avoided the one hunting me there might be a different way of communicating that I am not seeing. more observation is needed.

'fuuuuuck'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

year 56 (Earth year 2006, 4 years till departure)

it is the end of my 56th year in this universe and I can finally leave this god-forsaken trench, I have managed to completely map and mimic the organisms I have dubbed collectively Azathoth after the blind idiot god imagined by H.P. Lovecraft.

With creative use of shape and density shifting, I was able to observe five of the creatures at once by stretching multiple sensory organs in the form of eyes on stalks stretched out over miles by utilizing every inch of my mass. From what I saw and tested there is only ever one Azathoth active at a time, whichever Azathoth gets "activated" first takes priority over any other members of the species it comes across. This led me to believe that they are a singular organism that has the ability to move between host bodies or a species with an extremely closed psychic community. I was unable and unwilling to discern between the two as I did not want to be attacked by a highly specialized defensive mind or strange body hoppy entity.

With the end of my scientific adventure to the depths of Mars, I am finally ready to return to my family and hopefully enlist my good uncle J'onn to help me rub my genius in the faces of some pompous racists.

I feel smug satisfaction transmitted from over my shoulder. turning to the bowling-ball sized black and electric blue sphere and let out an amused snort in response

I had stumbled upon a truly miraculous sight in a small cave in the depths of the Black Trench. A small luminescent pool in a closed-off air pocket that I had found when I was testing out my phasing to observe Azathoth, as soon as I found this pool I entered it completely knowing that no sound would escape and let down my mental shields a bit. When my shields came down immediately the pool lit up and I heard a childish babble that seemed like a mix between martian baby talk and the excitability of a puppy. After spending over a year in near-complete isolation I might have jumped on the chance for any kind of social interaction and completely bonded with whatever what chattering at me.

Extremely luckily for me, it was a naturally occurring bioship, something that much like the Lazarus pits on earth can be created artificially but also extremely rarely they can be created by multiple nearly impossible geological, alchemical, and mystical formations come together to create a completely unique lifeform. The martian bioships are semi symbiotic and can grow and shift indefinitely, they, of course, must grow over time in order to be capable of interstellar or even interplanetary travel, but even the tiny one I have now is perfect for halo drops or a flight suit that can give me a massive speed boost in my telekinetic flight.

With my new friend that I named Serenity after the oasis it was born in (lmk what you guys think of the name, give alternates if yall don't like it) even if I couldn't get J'onn to accompany to back up my claims as an unbiased observer, my discover and bond with serenity is proof enough of my ventures into the deep.

returning back to the city I look much different from the baseline form of the white Martian, I had adopted many aspects of the animals I had mimicked over the years I was much larger covered with thick plated shifting scale of bone covered my immensely dense muscle from the blind behemoths form, the two whip-like appendages from the white spines hung and swayed down my back, my head configured in a more spherical shape than the rest of my martian brethren having incorporated parts of the auditory system of the Azathoth. I had built my body out of a synergy of every Apex creature on Mars, this form was my go-to when I needed to put something down fast or was going into a situation completely blind as it covered all of my bases while leaving room for quick changes based on the situation.

I might have gone a bit wild.