Author's Note: Sorry if my writing style is all over the place, I lose track of how I'm writing as I think of each scene. All characters are 18+
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Garren was born the heir of his father, lacking neither money nor status, and felt as if the world were at his fingertips. Surely he wasn't the most affluent of individuals, but being a noble required tiresome banquets and soirees where he had no choice but to mingle with others of high society. Not to mention his duties as the heir of his household, the stress of it all was undeniably a heavy weight on his shoulders. Garren hardly had an outlet to let out all this steam built within himself. He couldn't bring himself to frequent prostitutes, as it would bring shame to his family, and he tired of fencing amongst soldiers that wouldn't dare fight at their full strength. No, to alleviate himself of stress he had a secret hobby of raising himself a monster.
The slime is a commonplace monster, gelatinous, fluid, and skilled in mimicry. Although they are thought to be relatively mindless with no thought of their own, they have a basic understanding of emotion in order to trick their prey. Despite their relatively docile nature and appearance, slimes are considered highly dangerous and high maintenance. In society, slimes that grow too large are destroyed before they can cause harm to the citizens. The work of a slime is often retained to dealing with waste and decomposing matter, but in the wild they consume their prey alive and use their body pressure to crush the prey before dissolving them into energy. Slimes may also consume stones and minerals if no live prey or decomposing matter is to be found.
By happenstance, Garren found his slime companion in the garden when he went on a walk with his younger sister Elaine. He thought it a pretty little pebble and absentmindedly slipped it into his pocket until the next day when he found his waistcoat buttons had all but gone missing. Ever since then he has been feeding it and raising it in secret, letting it live in his personal greenhouse that's connected to his study.
The greenhouse was something Garren requested his father to build for himself and his sister so that whenever she would visit they could have tea time before he would be consumed in his work once more when she was younger, but now she was a woman and engaged to a more affluent noble family. With more on her plate, she hardly had time to visit Garren while he was swamped with his duties as heir. The greenhouse had fallen to the wayside in that time but with the slime in the picture Garren had found himself visiting it at least once or twice a day like in the past.
Garren approached the greenhouse during lunchtime, as was his new custom to feed the slime, with about half the meat from his meal. The slime undulated slightly as Garren approached it, its body was plump and glistening in the noon light, excited for its first meal of the day. Garren placed down his plate and let the slime slide over it to absorb the food. He reached out to gently stroke its gelatinous form, impressed by how much it had grown since he picked it up as it was now about as large as a melon.
