Naggal the Glup

[Snypiuer]

O.K., I simply don't know how to write this story. Here's the parameters:

Naggal is a Glup, from the planet Glup.

Glups are, basically, gelatinous cubes with no pseudo pods/appendages (they can't change shape in any way) or acidic digestion.

Glup was once a lush garden planet, but it has been millions of years since the cubes (Glups) have, LITERALLY, sanitized the planet - there is NO other life but the cubes.

It has been so long since a Glup has had to digest any type of organic matter, the ability to produce acid has been lost for hundreds of thousands of generations.

Glups move by jiggling themselves and, slowly, seeing where they go - it's kind of like those old metal football games where you placed plastic players on it, and it vibrates and the players randomly move about the board.

Glups are just a LOT slower. Because of this, about 90% of all Glups never wander beyond eyesight (Our eyesight of course, since they don't, you know, have eyes) of where they are created.

A Glup will grow until it can no longer hold itself together, at which point it will fall apart, leaving behind goo and small Glups. In order to grow, Glups are able to absorb the goo and, if they move over the smaller Glups, they can mush them into goo and absorb that. If a Glup doesn't grow big enough to fall apart, it will eventually dry up and crumble into a powder that other Glups absorb when it lands on them (when wind blows it about) or they move over it.

Because of this, Glups are all, basically, made of the same goo that they have been sharing for countless generations and, therefore have a low-level emphatic connection where they can tell the "emotional" state of nearby Glups - sort of a, not quite, hive-mind. This connection, along with wiggling allows for them to communicate with each other.

With all this, Glups don't really even think about dying, they know they will just become part of another Glup and live on.

Now, here's my dilemma:

Without introducing outside factors such as aliens, demons, mutations, magic, etc. (just regular Glups on planet Glup), write an epic adventure with a heroic Glup named Naggal.

[Harmonious_Echos]

Hmmmm.....I see the dilemma. I think in order to have any sort of heroic-ness, there must be CHANGE introduced; at the very least, a new type of rock, or something that becomes valuable to them, in some sort of way; some type of villain; and then the brave Naggal can rise above to his "heroic glupness". Because heroes are, by their very nature, unique and different in some way, and in order to be unique there must be change, and stressors of some kind. 
I would probably make the change something particularly banal, like a chemical reaction to a certain thermal vent which opened on the planet's surface, bringing to light a new gas or liquid that the Glups had never encountered before. The villain I would make the largest of the Glups, a certain Glupulous Glotton, who was known to have excised smaller Glups of themselves when those parts became too hydrated, and then wait until they became powder before intentionally reabsorbing them; thus preventing Glupself from becoming over-hydrated and falling apart, or over-dry and becoming powdered. In this way the Glupulous has developed a knack for avoiding the death that most Glups take for granted, and has grown a particularly odd emotion for a Glup--the wish to prevent death. This unusual wish of this particular Glup makes them develop another rare trait--cruelty. 
Meanwhile our hero, Naggal the Glup, is an unsuspecting Glup birthed, shall we say, of the Glupulous, is unknowing that they, Naggal, are intended to be reabsorbed without the proper death first--causing pain, and cruelty. Naggal witnesses this cruelty to other Glups, and rises above thier Glupness to make the heroic attempt to escape, and grow into Gluphood on thier own. 
Naggal does not succeed in escaping (being, after all, very slow) but they do succeed in absorbing a lot of water, unknown to the Giant. And when they are absorbed by the Glupulous (with pain and suffering), the excess water they absorbed takes immediate effect by destabilizing the delicate balance of the giant Glup's innards. Almost immediately, a new generation of smaller Glups are born, the Glupulous is gone, and there remains no more Glups who fear death. 
The End 

😆

Edited March 24 by Harmonious_Echos

[Snypiuer]

Well-reasoned, IF Glups could shed excess mass as smaller Glups. I'd have to call that a mutation because Glups grow until their size simply becomes too big to hold together structurally or they, eventually, dry up from lack of absorbing new goo. To be able to excise a portion of itself, a Glup would need to be able to create a pseudo pod or appendage that it then severs. Glups can NOT create pseudo pods or appendages. Even if it could, cutting a piece of itself off, the Glup would lose structural integrity and fall apart. The addition of a new gas or liquid could grant the ability to do so, but that would also fall under the no mutations caveat.

The closest I could get involves accidently sliding into a small depression and getting stuck. Not even a big or deep depression in the ground - just enough so a Glup is unable to wiggle hard enough to get out of it.

Glups would call it "The Hole".

I have no idea how to make that an epic adventure though.

I then realize that I'm thinking like a being with arms that can hold a weapon or manipulate objects and legs that can move me from place to place and up, down or around things in my way. A voice that allows me to communicate beyond base emotion or simple expression. Not to mention the lack of knowledge as to what will ACTUALLY happen after my demise.

*By the way, the reason Glups have a low-level emphatic connection isn't totally because they share the same goo, it's because the goo, itself, retains the essence and memories of ALL previous forms it took. So, while the community of Glups are only a "not quite" hive mind, each individual Glup, basically IS a hive mind of all its' past selves and each of those past selves are spread out amongst all other Glups that absorbed that goo. So Glups don't actually die, even when they dry up, once their powder is absorbed, they rehydrate and, boom, they're right as rain. Glups are pretty much immortal when you think about it.*

So there's the dilemma:

NOT what is an epic adventure to ME, what is an epic adventure to a GLUP!?

I try to get in the mindset by sitting on my hands, cross legged in the middle of the floor. When my niece comes in and asks what I'm doing, I whisper until she gets close enough to hear, then I wiggle and whisper one-word thoughts like, "bored" or "hungry".

By the way, should I be concerned that NO ONE in my family is troubled in the slightest at my behavior? Not one of them has said, "You know what, we ought to have him evaluated." They used to. When I was younger. Now, not so much as a "what have you".😕

[Harmonious_Echos]

I imagine they're somewhat used to you by now... 

And I think the idea of "the hole" is a decent one, seeing as the Glup would need to get out of it, in order to rejoin the general process of re-absorption and re-hydration? Being in a hole could possibly prevent that particular Glup from ever absorbing or being absorbed by another... what if you made it a sinkhole? With a cave, and a small stream of goo-ish water which Naggal must be pushed through/ float down, in order to regain the surface and rejoin the rest? That sounds much more epic-ish; especially for a creature which cannot move far and has very few experiences to relate to, when it comes to a cave or a stream. 
And sinkholes happen by very gradual processes so it's entirely possible, even on a planet that has pretty much nothing except a little moisture, and dust/rock...