UwU ~ Thanks for reading and thanks for the compliments! Indeed, Its Kestrel wanted to recruit and test the old man (who basically is Octo before I decided to call them that pre-transformation. Of course all the other stories involving the Agent are Connexione then Feral Canine then A New Cadaver). Also yeah I probably should mention this that barely got hinted at in Unholy utterance: the Shu'ulathoi are a fragmented species spread across the entire Universe. It was testing to see if the "ghost" kids were indeed Shu'ulathoi or real ghosts; It got Its satisfaction soon enough (what that satisfaction is, I shall leave in the air as to what It really prizes with this newfound information). Otherwise, this tribe of Shu'ulathoi were resting in the coffins (or really pods, the Old man thought they were coffins because of the "ghost" kids). It can shape-shift/transmutate forms, the Agent(s) cannot.