Character art by BattleFerrets

Notes For Commissioned Artists

Attention to detail gets you everywhere with me! <3

• Pronouns: She/her/hers/herself or they/their/theirs/themself (also, to a lesser extent, sie/sier/sies/sieself)
• She can retract into her shell completely and the plates on her body seal the holes in her shell

Personality

If given free reign, Shelbe is extremely intelligent, able to understand, interpret and extrapolate data as efficiently as a super computer. However, she lacks in social grace and has difficulties understanding subtleties in language. She can read body language better than most, but spoken language baffles her. She does not understand sarcasm.

Loves

1. Being praised for a good job (or in general)
2. Doing a good job
3. Completing tasks assigned to her
4. Being able to roam about freely
5. Examining the world around her

Likes

1. Being able to engage in conversation without upsetting anyone
2. Naps
3. Observing people interacting
4. Strawberries

Dislikes

1. Upsetting people
2. Being attacked
3. Being admonished

Hates

1. Being in a cage/prison/observation room

Character Information

Deep in the heart of Melodia, there are many labs conducting genetic research and experiments. Despite strict regulations and harsh punishment for offenders, there have been many breakthroughs in the last fifty or so years aiding in the preservation of many fading species. Whether it be attempts to crossbreed two species to help them survive or the promising looking trans-species womb insemination, some species just don’t survive. Unfortunately, this led to a lot of unethical and illegal genetic modification experiments. They were frequent and numerous enough that people now shorthand them to IGMEs.

Experiment 51-13183 is one such IGME.

Due to snails and other mollusc’s extremely high adaptability and easily altered DNA, their kind are the most commonly used for IGMEs. The lab where experiments 51-13183 and 51-13317 were created was no different. Using several different species, a sea slug in experiment 51-13317’s case (the wiggly odd one, Sneely) and a terrestrial snail in experiment 51-13183’s case, they had hundreds of current IGMEs.

51-13183 was created and isolated from the outside save for her creator’s voice over intercom and various information, tests, and tasks that were given to her. There was one time where a much smaller voice spoke to her and asked: “Are you Shelbe?” This voice intrigued her and the question even more so. Up to this point there was only ever the voice of ‘Sir’, as he wished to be called, and her designation as ‘five one dash one three one eight three’ or ‘my good girl’.

Over the next couple of months, Sir began to refer to 51-13183 as ‘Shelbe’ as it was easier to say and Shelbe herself had become somewhat obsessed with it. She had no reference point, but somehow being called by a designation rather than an experiment number or a pet name made her feel really wonderful.

By month six, Shelbe was full grown and given very rare opportunities to see Sir through a window in her isolation chamber. She would stare at him and watch him as he worked on papers or ate lunch or sometimes even interact with another researcher. Though the others were always out of visual range, even for her superior sight. There was some kind of device that caused any spectrum of light to be scrambled beyond a certain point in the lab and this frustrated her.

By the end of year one, Shelbe was crammed full of information and practical experience for varying sciences and mathematics. Having proven to calculate and compute at the speeds of supercomputers, Sir had given her the map to her own creation and was asked to see if there was room for improvement. She wasn’t given much time to figure it out, however. As soon as the data was passed into her chamber, the lights went out. They usually only did that during designated rest times.

That’s when the scary noises happened and Shelbe felt like the world was coming to an end. Never before had she experienced an unplanned or uncontrolled event. That was when the private security company, Silent River, took out the entire facility.

There are so many cases of illegal genetic research each year, that authorities have come to ask private security firms for assistance handling the larger or more dangerous cases. Shelbe’s lab was one such case. The lab had been working in secret for longer than most, so there were many experiments. Most of them could not be saved and were being kept alive mechanically, despite their suffering, while some others were made to be carriers of dangerous plagues and communicable diseases. Elly, one of the Silent River agents assigned to the task, showed them mercy and allowed them to expire while having the unfortunate duty of requiring to eliminate any of the experiments that were stable, but unable to be managed or controlled.

When the end of the world finally stopped, and the light to Sir’s room came back, Shelbe got her first view of someone else. Many someone elses. The bundrake stared into Shelbe’s chamber and then turn on the overhead speaker. “Are you capable of communicating?”

“Communication is a task I have been assigned occasionally by Sir.” She answered timidly. Elly then lifted the limp body of ‘Sir’ into view for Shelbe to see. Shelbe couldn’t help but stare. “Multiple open wounds, massive hemorrhaging… total organ failure. Sir has expired?”

“That answers that question. Listen, did ‘Sir’ tell you what you are? What he was trying to accomplish with you?”

Shelbe shook her head, not really understanding what the bundrake was looking for. “Sir simply gave me tasks to complete and rewarded me for doing a good job. Many things with words on pages he called books and chemicals. Probability and statistics, bioengineering, chemistry, trigonometry, physics. These were among the things he gave me, there were many more… Would you like me to list them all?”

“No, that’s fine. But with regards to bioengineering, did he ever put harmful diseases or viruses in you or in your cell?”

“Negative. All contaminates have been adjusted for life in Esoteria. Common allergens from around the area were introduced, as well as common, but non-lethal, illnesses. My immune system functions at twelve times the strength of the common garden snail. According to the books, and Sir…”

“How can you be sure?”

“Sir allowed me to examine samples of pulmonary and circulatory systems and cellular structures of others. I got curious and took some samples from myself to examine. While I am not without error occasionally, of this I am approaching 100% certainty… based on the information I have been given.”

Elly was uncertain, and didn’t want to cause the next black death, so she left Shelbe in the cell for a day while she and some experts went over the researcher’s notes.

Shelbe was used to long periods of solitude, but she always hated them. The day passed and she could see people pass by once in a while, which made her excited in a way she hadn’t felt since being named. When Elly finally came back, the bulk of Shelbe’s entire soft body was pressed up against the window on the side of her cell.

Elly cocked her brow, giving Shelbe a sidelong glance before turning on the speaker once more, “okay, everything you’ve said checks out. You are… one of the lucky ones,” her voice trails off, “if you call this lucky.” Shelbe’s cell starts to shake and move, something it had never done before. Shelbe’s first reaction was to retreat into her shell. She sucked her entire body in and pushed the plated section against the hollow points within a second. The cell stopped and Shelbe heard more strange noises, the seal on her cell breaking open and the bridge platform extending. Her cell had never opened before. Items were dropped in and sent away through three tubes at one end of her cell, so there was never any direct contact with the outside. Shelbe was frightened.

She slid a plate covering one of the holes in her shell to the side and cautiously peeked out with one of her eye stalks. Elly and a couple of agents stood on the other side of the platform, playing it safe for them as well as Shelbe.

After a few awkward minutes, Shelbe and the agents were less guarded. Shelbe didn’t pose a threat to them, and the agents were not going to harm her so long as she didn’t make sudden movements or take aggressive action. When they all made it outside of the building, there was almost an incident, but the sudden and loud reaction from Shelbe was that of pure amazement. Discovering an entire colorful world beyond the confines of the facility, Shelbe attempted to examine everything, but Elly and the agents kept her moving.

Shelbe’s life would have been a series of examinations and extremely limited interactions with the outside world if not for Silent River. Even after the rescue, because Shelbe is an IGME, she would have been put in a government operated observation facility if not for Elly’s suggestion to use her as a resource. It wasn’t easy to get the authorization to use an IGME in such a way, but Gabby, the owner and operator of Silent River, trusted in Elly’s judgment and used her position and political sway to get it approved.

Now, though having a bit of a rocky start, Shelbe is learning from the best agents available, including Elly, and becoming the asset the bundrake hoped she’d be.

She is still incredibly awkward in social situations, though.

Other random facts

• The holes in her shell can be used as ports for anemone-like tentacles, translucent and pink, striped with white
• Her body shape is moldable to a certain degree, so she can ‘enhance’ her body shape to be more appealing to other morphs, or less depending on the situation. (she can give herself breast-like forms, the appearance of well defined muscles, a curvier shape, etc.)
• The top four tentacles on the head are eyes and each of them has the visual acuity of a mantis shrimp
• The bottom tentacles of the head are olfactory sensors with the same power as an african elephant