Xanthorp’s Secret Project

*Translator Note: All time frames have been readjusted for lesser-life forms.* 

There’s always that one entity in every group project that never takes it seriously. They always have an excuse ready or simply never show up to any meetings, coasting off the work of the others. And Xanthorp was ok with that. He knew that asking Zaiyanoth to watch over the planet and its inhabitants would only cause more issues than solve them.

The first time they put Zaiyanoth in charge of watching over the planet a millenia ago, a terrible plague had begun to blaze through the inhabitants population, killing a third of their population and almost ending their project. Of course, Zaiyanoth should have been paying attention, injecting small amounts of Madness to the right doctors and scientists to help the inhabitants get through the terrible episode, but no, he had been distracted and had let them die.

After that, the group decided never to let him look after it alone again, content to leave him as a slacker in the group.

Except for now. Again, due to unfortunate timing, no one else was able to watch over the planet, leaving only Zaiyanoth to oversee it as the planet began to enter its twenty-first century; a pivotal epoch in its development.

Before Xanthorp left, he had desperately reiterated to Zaiyanoth, time and time again, to carefully watch over the rising tensions between the growing nations and ease off the Madness when things become too violent. But of course, he forgot.

And since the amount of Madness was kept constant, eventually, the societies went crazy and sent nuke after nuke at each other. In less than one of the planet’s rotations, or barely a second in the eyes of the Young Ones, all the inhabitants were all dead and their project was ruined.

The group watched the radioactive rock, its usual blue and green colors now drab and gray as soot and soil covered the atmosphere. Barely any life was left, all the major lifeforms were gone, and in less than a decade, the rest would follow suit. It’d take at least another ten millenia for anything to grow on it again, and their due date was in two.

“Great, fantastic.” Pov-Deeleth said. “Ten millennia of work gone. I was hoping I’d get this millenia free, but now I guess we’ll have to work overtime to make something else as a substitute.”

“We could just make a pseudo-quasar instead.” Zaiyanoth said. “I’d always make them for my solo projects and get a passing grade.”

“What, like we’re 7 eons old? We’d be laughed out of the class.”

“We don’t have many other options.” Xanthorp said. “All the other habitable planets were already taken, and like you said, we don’t have much time.”

“Maybe we could take some of the humans from another group and plop them on another planet.” Vinthanoz said. “Maybe Yog-Sothoth won’t notice.” 

No one responded. They all sighed and thought the same thing, Yog-Sothoth always notices. 

“Alright, pseudo-quasar it is.” Pov-Deeleth said. “Vinthanoz, you get the hydrogen, Xanthorp, you get some star iron, and Zaiyanoth… Actually, nevermind, I’ll make the gravity waves. See you guys in my dimension later.” Pov-Deeleth moved his consciousness away.

“I can’t believe all that work is just gone.” Vinthanoz said. “So many centuries, so much micromanaging to make sure the humans didn’t kill each other, balancing the right amount of Madness, whispering into the right people’s ears to advance their civilization. I was so sure we’d get them to a type II civilization and impress Cthulhu… But I guess not. Xanthorp, can you tell Yog-Sothoth what happened? You’re the best at talking with him.”

“Yeah,” he said with a thousand lightyear stare, “I’ll do it.”

“Great, thanks.” Vinthanoz also moved his consciousness away, leaving just Xanthorp and Zaiyanoth.

A month passed as the two of them stared at the desolate rock, until Zaiyanoth meekly said, “Xanthorp, I just wanna say, I am sorry about… this.” Zaiyanoth gestured to the still spinning planet. “I’m just not very good at developing lesser life forms, I’m better at making galaxies and nebulas. That’s what I’ve been working toward with my progenitor. Still, I hope we do well with the pseudo-quasar. See you at Pov-Deeleeth’s.” His consciousness slowly dissipated. 

Xanthorp was left by himself, observing the planet that had been teeming with life not just one year earlier. He downsized himself, creating a corporal shell for his consciousness to inhabit so he could walk through the ruins of his work.

Most buildings were still standing, but within the decade, they’d all fall. He walked around Horandus, his favorite city since he had the biggest hand in its creation. It was devastating when it fell to the barbarians centuries later, but it was how these things went.

After a few weeks, Xanthorp found a singular human still alive in the depths of the planet’s mantle, her body riddled with holes after a disagreement between her and the others in the bunker. He injected her with a decent amount of Madness to help ease her passing and let her know her struggle doesn’t mean anything in the vastness of the cosmos. 

After it became too much, Xanthorp molted his shell and grew back into his metaphysical self. He gazed at the bits of rock that had escaped the planet’s gravity and were drifting towards the emptiness of space.

He paused.

Xanthorp could sense the extremely faint signal of living organisms nearby, but there should be none. He looked closely at the rocks and noticed bits of moss on them. Looking even closer, he could see micro-animals suspended within the moss, still technically alive. Blackholes and Singularities, how did they survive?

They were small and undeveloped, an entire magnitude of complexity lower than the humans, but they were alive and free of radiation. How are they not bothered by the vacuum of space? 

Xanthorp peered into the micro-environment and understood.

These small beings had completely dehydrated themselves, putting them in a form of suspended animation. They had even packed themselves with stringular proteins to protect their shape. Even the cold didn’t seem to be bothering as they also had ice nucleating proteins to keep the cold from freezing the integral parts of their biology. The solar radiation that should have been annihilating their DNA was kept at bay by yet another protein surrounding their chromosomes. Incredible. I’m surprised we didn’t notice these small things before. Perhaps they have potential?

He considered telling the others that a few organisms had survived, but paused. He didn’t want Zaiyanoth ruining these guys as well, nor did he want the others to take any credit since he had been the one watching over the project the most. 

For now, he hid the rocks in a small pocket dimension and went to Yog-Sothoth’s domain to tell him the news.

It was not Xanthorp’s favorite place to exist. Well, it wasn’t exactly a place, but the place inbetween places. The tangent of all the other dimensions, where a being was technically everywhere and nowhere, like the space between the walls of a house. It was always difficult for Xanthorp to keep his mind straight when he existed there, and he had to guess Yog-Sothoth did that on purpose.

Xanthorp observed Yog-Sothoth at his work station, keeping the gates between worlds intact while adding just a bit of madness as he did so. “It’s what keeps the job fun.” He had said.

He cleared his metaphysical throat to get Yog-Sothoth’s attention. “Excuse me, Lurker of the Threshold?”

One of the thirteen iridescent orbs comprising Yog-Sothoth’s being turned its focus on Xanthorp. Yes, Young One?

Hearing even one-thirteenth of Yog-Sothoth’s voice put Xanthorp on edge, but he mustered through. “My group had a small mishap with our project planet and it, uh, fell into radioactive decay.”

Another orb turned its focus on Xanthrop. Is that so? And only two millennia before the deadline. I hope you didn’t come to me with just an excuse.

Xanthorp gulped. “No-no, Your All Encompassing-ness, not at all. The others have changed their project to creating a pseudo-quasar instead.”

Others? You are not including yourself within the group anymore?

“Yes and no, Controller of all Keys and Gates. I wish to also have my own project in conjunction with the group’s. A few simple but promising looking organisms had survived the cataclysm and I believe I can make something of them, even if there’s only two millenia left.”

A few weeks passed as Yog-Sothoth considered this. I will allow it. But as a contention, you will be scored on both projects as an average. 

“Understood, Opener of the Way. Thank you for your clemency.” And with that, Xanthorp eased his consciousness out of Yog-Sothoth’s domain and back into his own dimension. 

Now Xanthorp had to figure out where to put the small things. He didn’t have time to look for a planet that could sustain them, and anyway, it would attract too much suspicion from the group. He’d have to find some second option.

He drifted through the cosmos, passing a star that had developed into its supernova phase, then floating through a hydrogen nebula, until he came to the cloud of dihydrogen monoxide he used to play in when he was barely a nightmare in the minds of lesser beings. 

He paused.

The cloud was decently sized and close enough to a nearby star that most of it remained in its liquid form. It was a fair distance away from the other’s dimensions, and it wouldn’t be suspicious for him to continuously return here. All it would need was some careful cultivation to help the small guys adjust to their new environment.

After thinking on it for a month, Xanthorp brought the bits of moss out of the pocket dimension and slowly introduced them to their new home. He plucked the moss away and added a teaspoon of madness to help it expand, tripling its surface area within a few weeks. Then, he carefully plucked and moved each of the organisms onto the liquid cloud. 

Immediately, they started writhing around, looking for food, perhaps slightly confused at the lack of gravity. It was a large difference, but one Xanthorped hoped wouldn’t bother them too much. 

Hmm, I should probably come up with a name for these things. What did the humans call them? Xanthorp skimmed through his notes until he found a passing line in the mind of one of the scientists he had been communing with. “Tardigrades?” What kind of name is that? He looked closely at their six limbs with sharp spikes at the end and their suction mouths with a piercing tongue hidden within. Now that I’m looking at them in their animated form, they kind of remind me of my old Shoggoth. Kind of cute, actually. He decided on a name. I’ll call them Ubbos. 

Pov-Deeleeth’s voice manifested itself within Xanthorp, “Hey man, where are you? You were supposed to bring the star iron like a year ago.”

“Oh right, sorry about that, convincing Yog-Sothoth took longer than I thought. I’ll be there in a week.” Xanthop stopped by a galaxy cluster and picked up the star iron, then moved his consciousness to Pov-Deeleeth’s dimension.

“Finally.” Pov Deeleeth said as he snatched the star iron. “We need to get this stuff ready as soon as possible. It takes at least a millenia for the quasar to start spinning properly, then the real work starts.”

“Yeah, sorry, like I said, I lost track of time. Anything else you need me to do?” 

Zaiyanoth was lousing around, while Vinthanoz was focusing on measuring out the hydrogen and then expanding it into small clouds.

“Yeah, you can get the gravity waves spinning so after I’m done prepping the star iron, we can just throw it all together with the hydrogen clouds.”

“On it.”

The years passed as they got to work on their new project, taking measurements and writing down each step, its components, why they have to do them, and what they ultimately thought would occur towards the end. Before Xanthorp knew it, almost a decade had passed. His progenitor pinged him with confusion, asking him when he’d return, leaving him no time to check on his personal project. Keys and Gates, I totally forgot about the Obbus. I’ll have to check in on them tomorrow. I hope they can handle being on their own for a while.

Xanthorp said his farewells to the group and moved his consciousness back to his dimension where his progenitor was waiting for him, her hundred eyes all staring down at him, half full of worry, half full of confusion. “Xanthorp, where were you? Dinner was half a year ago.”

“Sorry, Progenitor of my Being, our planet project got botched so we had to work something else out. Took some time.”

Her eyes all shifted to understanding. “Oh, my little terror, I’m so sorry. I know you were putting a lot of years into that. What happened?”

Xanthorp sighed and waved his hands, “It was nothing, just a mistake someone made. I just need to dream for a bit.” After they feasted on the nightmares she had manifested, he slumped his consciousness into his solar system where he dreamed and shaped what the now deceased inhabitants of the planet had called reality. 

The next century, Xanthorp snuck out of his dimension to get a good look at how the Obbus were developing. He had to be quick as Yog-Sothoth expected all the Young ones to manifest within his domain in less than three months. 

He went back to the cloud of dihydrogen monoxide, hoping the Obbus were at the very least still alive, but what he saw completely went beyond his hopes.

The Obbus weren’t just surviving, they were thriving. They had already far surpassed what they had been when Xanthorp first saw them. Peering into the microscopic environment, he could see Obbus shepherds protecting and moving the diatoms around the moss, making sure they stayed where the light was strongest. Other Obbus were using the silica from the diatoms to create makeshift shelters for them to hibernate in when the diatoms became too low in number, allowing them to repopulate. They had even begun cultivating the moss, helping it grow and stay healthy.

Incredible, even though these organisms are incredibly simple, they are much quicker at adapting than the others we had been working with. Perhaps the lack of gravity allowed for a massive caloric surplus? He jotted down what he could, but didn’t have enough time to get it all down. Before heading towards Yog-Sothoth’s domain for the Centurial lesson, he pushed the star ever so slightly to keep it the perfect distance, and added just a dash of Madness to the Obbus to help them develop a bit quicker. This century’s lesson is going to take forever to get through.

The lessons were usually boring, owing to the fact that Xanthorp was already the number one entity within the Young Ones and, although he would never admit it, Yog-Sothoth’s favorite. This century’s lesson was on creating nightmares that spur less beings into becoming more than their past selves. A little droll, but it at least allowed them to be creative.  

Xanthorp partnered with Vinthanoz, while Pov-Deeleeth got stuck with Zaiyanoth. Xanthorp and Vinthanoz made a wonderful nightmare composed of spiders and claustrophobia, causing incredible amounts of terror and obtaining them a passing nod from one of Yog-Sothoth’s orbs. Pov-Deeleeth and Zaiyanoth tried mixing together faceless people, the sense of falling, the feeling of being burned alive, and losing a loved one, but the amounts of terror they got were way lower than what they had expected, almost ten percent of their estimate.

Later, Yog-Sothoth explained why their nightmare turned out so poorly in front of the entire class. He said, You see Young Ones, adding many more fears does not necessarily mean the nightmare will do better. More likely, it will hint to the organism that what they are seeing isn’t real. More often than not, the simplest is the strongest.

After stopping by Pov-Deeleeth’s dimension to continue working on the pseudo-quasar, Xanthorp rushed back to the liquid cloud to see how the Obbus were faring. In just one century they had jumped from simple hunter-gatherers to herders and agriculturalists; he couldn’t imagine where’d they’d be twenty years later.

As Xanthorp materialized near the cloud, he was confused to see the cloud more green than blue. Then he realized it was the moss.

It covered almost a quarter of the cloud, spreading through it like veins, and surrounding those veins were the Obbus. While their population may have started with only a hundred of them, now they were in the billions. The silicon housing had advanced to asteroid sized catacombs, with hundreds and hundreds of tunnels carved through it.

Even the Obbus themselves had changed. Peering closely, he could see their spikes had become much more dexterous, allowing them to carve silicon tablets with ease. They developed a writing system in less than two centuries! Incredible! The piercing needles they used to have had also changed, allowing them to make rudimentary clucking noises for oral communication. 

Xanthorp wrote and recorded as much as he could, trying to get every changed detail and cultural development. A year passed as he did so, until he noticed something else about the Obbus.

They were taking notice of him.

Now, this wasn’t an impossibility. Many humans had been able to feel Xanthorp and his other group members’ presence, but only after honing their skills over half of their lifetime. The Obbus however, had the cognitive abilities to sense Xanthorp after only a single year. It was slightly startling, but also extremely promising. 

There was even a small cult in his name, slowly growing in size. He peered closely at one Obbus as it led a group in sacrificing another to appease him. It was cute, in a way. The same thing had occurred with the humans. None of the Young Ones could figure out why the humans thought killing one of their own would somehow impress them. But still, it’s the thought that counts.

However, to show that Xanthorp appreciated their devotion, he imbued the group with a decent amount of Madness to let them see the true way of things. One of them immediately killed itself, which just showed it was strong enough for the Truth. The others however, stayed closer together, writing down what they could in the rudimentary language they had. 

Eventually, after Xanthorp had recorded all he could, he moved his consciousness back to his dimension before his progenitor became worried.

The next century, after Yog-Sothoth’s lesson and helping Pov-Deeleeth balance the gravity waves with the spinning iron core, Xanthorp drifted back to the cloud, his being filled with high expectations and excitement. He told his progenitor he would be late, allowing him extra time to live amongst the Obbus.

The cloud itself was almost half moss by that point; the Obbus must have advanced to such a degree that they were able to accelerate its growth. In fact, the moss had become so thick, he couldn’t see within it anymore. It was a dense, oval-shaped ball of greenery.

 He shrunk his being down and took on the corporeal shell of an Obbu. Then he shifted his way through the greenery until he saw something that he couldn’t believe. 

The Obbus home of silica and moss had become even more intricate. They had created tunnels and pipes with areas of low and high pressure, allowing them to send themselves or items across great distances in short periods of time, just like the concrete highways on their past project. They also had small flippers that covered their spiked legs, allowing them to swim through the water at much greater speeds. Incredible. They're so simple, and yet they still persist.

For a few years, Xanthorp lived the simple life of an Obbu, learning their ways. Their language was odd, being highly context driven, but at the same time highly precise. They had a form of mathematics (which all physical beings develop as a way to converse and attempt to comprehend things greater than themselves) that was rudimentary but promising, and their values put altruism over everything else.

All and all, it was a highly promising endeavor and would definitely impress Cthulhu at the Ethereal Expose.

He was slightly disappointed to learn that his cult had disintegrated all together, perhaps burnt out by the Madness he had given unto them. They had been replaced by some nonsensical drivel about All being One, whatever that could mean. Almost every greeting and farewell he heard mentioned it.

Once he felt like he had a firm grasp on their society, Xanthorp grew out of his mortal coil and returned to his incorporeal self where he jotted down everything he could remember. Metamorphosing from physical back to metaphysical had its drawbacks, but it was the best way to learn about their culture. 

Xanthorp wasn’t expecting them to become a type II civilization by the Ethereal Expose, but he was sure they’d still amaze the judges. He’d wait until they’d advance as far as they could, then he’d gather as much of their world as possible and put it in stasis to show at the Ethereal Expose.

The next century, in Pov-Deeleeth’s dimension, they were finishing setting up the pseudo-quasar. They had finally got it to spin fast enough by manipulating the gravity waves, tedious and precise work, but ultimately satisfying. They then moved the hydrogen into the perfect position, allowing the quasar to suck it in, accelerating its spin until it would begin to shoot out high-frequency electromagnetic waves. While the project itself was nothing to gawk at, they hoped they’d still get points for a job well done. 

They all congratulated each other, even Zaiyanoth, even though he technically didn’t do anything.  “I brought stellar bits and uranium rods.” He said. “That’s gotta count for something.”

Vinthanoz scoffed, “If only you could get good grades by giving away snacks.” 

Pov-Deeleeth sighed, “Let’s just finish the write up so we can actually get some free time, yeah?” Everyone agreed.

Pov and Vin took more measurements, such as the quasar’s precession relative to the wavelengths it was creating, as well as the output it would likely give off by the end of its lifetime, while Xanthorp wrote it all down. He was trying to rush through it since he wanted to get back to the cloud as soon as possible to check on the Obbus in case they blew themselves up like the previous project. 

As they were finishing up, Pov’s progenitors called him, “Could you and one of your entities help me move some rings? It’ll only be a month.”

Pov and Vin glanced at each other, before grunting and heading to help, leaving just Xanthorp and Zaiyanoth. 

To make some time, Xanthorp was moving back and forth between doing the measurements and writing them down.

Surprisingly, Zaiynaoth asked, “Do you need some help with that?”

Xanthorp hesitated. He did want it to be done as quickly as possible, but at the same time he didn’t want Zaiyanoth to somehow ruin their project. But what could he do? We’re just taking measurements.

Xanthorp sighed. “Yes, actually. Can you hold the hydrogen vapor while I measure how much is being sucked in?”

He shrugged. “Sure.”

Xanthorp carefully put the vapor in his hands, making sure not to knock it any closer to the quasar. “Perfect, just hold it exactly like that while I get a reading.” 

Zaiyanoth almost fell over. “Dreams and Mists, this is a lot heavier than I thought it’d be.”

“Just hold it for a few more weeks.” He got the readings and went to write it down.

“Uh, Xanthorp, could you help me out? The vapor is slipping in my hands.”

“Almost, Zai, gotta write it down real quick.” He grunted as he realized he wrote one of the numbers incorrectly. 

“Xan, I could use some help here.”

“Be there in a day.” Xanthorp recorded all the information and went to help Zaiyanoth with the hydrogen vapor, but it was too late. 

It slipped out of his hands and spilled into the quasar, causing it to wobble and almost fall apart. Pov-Deeleeth and Vinthanoz came back right as it was happening. They rushed to help, trying to hold it together before it spun out of control. 

After a few months, they got the thing under control before it could destroy itself.

Pov-Deeleeth yelled, “Keys and Gateways, what happened guys? We were gone for like five months.”

Zaiyanoth tried to speak, but Xanthorp cut him off. “It was my fault guys, sorry. The vapor slipped out of my hands as I was measuring it.” 

“You were trying to hold it and measure it at the same time? What are you, mortal?”

“I know, I’m sorry, it was dumb. Just wanted to get it done.”

“Yeah, but now we’ll have to redo all the measurements, so I hope you had nowhere to exist.” 

Xanthorp internally sighed. “No, not really.”

Almost two years later, they had redone all their measurements and were finally finished with the quasar. Pov-Deeleeth plucked it from space and time and put it in a pocket dimension as he said, “I’ll bring it to the Expose, you guys just be on time, alright?”

Xanthorp said, “Sure, see you guys then,” and moved his consciousness back to the cloud in his own dimension. Entropy, please please please still be alive. Please, please, please… 

But alas, as he came closer to the cloud he couldn’t detect any life signs from the moss ball. If Xanthorp had a heart, he was sure it would have deflated. He didn’t know how they had done it, but all of the Obbus were gone, their moss home and mortal coils all that was left of them. The moss ball was cracked open, like an egg, its insides spilling into the cloud.

However, as Xanthorp laid on his metaphysical knees in despair, he felt a force not unlike Yog-Sothoth behind him. It was at the same time extremely familiar and extremely different, like two sides of a coin. He turned, but what he perceived was beyond his imagination. 

Literally. 

Xanthorp had on one or two occasions wondered what the mortal beings experienced when they perceived the Young and Old ones, when their minds broke due to the sheer incomprehension of it all. What did it feel like? What changed within them? 

But these were just passing fancies, since it would be impossible for Xanthorp to experience such things as he and the others were already the greatest entities in the cosmos. 

Until now. 

While all the Young, Old, and Outer Ones were abominations of mouths with razor sharp teeth, eyes everywhere, and a healthy mixture of tentacles, what was before Xanthorp was the complete opposite. 

A perfectly smooth, perfectly round, perfectly simple sphere existed in front of him, giving off a shimmer of color and an aura that gave off something else. 

Instead of Madness, Xanthorp felt… Calm. 

Our Creator. The Sphere said.

“Um, ye-yes? Is that me?” Xanthorp stuttered as his mind fractured under the weight of what he was trying to comprehend.

We thank you for your care of us, as well as moving us from our original home to this new Eden where we could become enlightened and achieve our final form. 

“And, um, what uh, what would that be?” His mind began to splinter into tinier and tinier pieces.

We became Life in its simplest form. While you and your kind represent the uncaring aspects of the cosmos, entropy in its purest form, we have metamorphosed into pure Life, the unceasing and relentless force that permits throughout the cosmos.

“Oh. Well, that’s…” Finally, his mind shattered. He was no longer Xanthorp, but a new follower in the Sphere’s ambitions. “That’s good.”

Yes. We faced a crisis not unlike the humans from the planet you took us from; overpopulation, resource rationing, internal conflicts. But instead of destroying each other, we melded together and decided to leave our cocoon and accomplish larger goals. 

Xanthorp was sure if he had his mental facilities to himself, he would have found that extremely interesting and would have wanted to write it down, but as he was, he simply nodded and asked, “And what would that be?”

We will go to the edges of the universe and where you will help me seed life wherever it may spring forth. Simple, but unyielding life. First, we will build a swarm, then we will convert the others.

Xanthorp kneeled. “Of course.”

Come with me. The two of them drifted toward a corner of the galaxy, passing asteroids and comets like a person stepping over pebbles. How much do you know of the original homeworld you took us from?

“Not much, Bringer of All Things Good. Only stories.”

Well then, let us tell you another one that we learned only recently. There was a Game Theory tournament where humans pitted different pieces of binary computer code against each other, and whoever could persuade the other side to collaborate most often was the winner. Humans spent days trying to create complex codes that could handle any situation, thinking multiple moves in advance, playing mind games with the other competitor. But can you guess what strategy won?

Xanthorp didn’t reply. 

It was code-named, “Tit-for-Tat,” and its strategy was incredibly simple. If the opponent didn’t collaborate, then it wouldn’t as well in the next round. If the opponent did collaborate, then it too would continue to collaborate the next round. Simple, but effective. That will be our dogma in our conquest across the universe.

“Of course, The Great Calm. I will follow it until the heat death of the universe.”

Good. Let us go and find places where life can bloom.