there's so many things that you'll never understand

[impure_void]

 


 

 





 

MEMORIAL TO THE
HOLLOW KNIGHT
------------------------
In the Black Vault far above.
Through its sacrifice Hallownest lasts eternal.

There's a figure at the base of the fountain, bent double, yet still taller than most bugs that once wandered these streets.

The Hollow Knight was sealed before it was raised in the center of the City. In all their glimpses of the world through Infected eyes, they had never seen this--this figure of themselves, towering high above the Dreamers that protected them, sacrificed everything for them, only differentiated by the carving of each mask.

This should not matter.

The emotion that is their flaw screams it does. Why--?

--This figure of them should not have ever been here. The Pale King prioritized their image above the living. A memorial to a thing. A memorial to a failure, still standing tall, lie inscribed for the straggling remains to see.

They should not wonder why. They should not feel the wound in their chest throbbing with new pain. Do not think, do not feel, do not do not do not--

Gendered Child, sister, told them they may go, and they have gone. 

And they are here, beneath the shadow of a false Purity, beneath pounding rain in an empty City. 

Nothing about this spurs them to move. Their mask presses flat against fountain's base, hard enough to ache.

They empty their mind, and wait.

Comments

whoops

[capitalcurator]

Lemm doesn't wait long. [ or does he, did the player wait months to reply, we just don't know ] Not waiting long also means he doesn't stay long enough to watch for whether the Hollow Knight is picking up their nail or not, which gives them leeway to do so.

He's off by the elevator, waiting patiently with an umbrella he snatched from by the door, and when his strange guest follows he kicks the switch heftily again and...

...risks a glance up. It's stupid not to. He isn't looking at the nail, though, he's looking at the Hollow Knight's mask, really looking, like he's been too careful to do it properly until now.

The elevator creaks as it descends.

as though muse or mun have a concept of time

[impure_void]

They had a loose scrap of a thought that they didn't much resist: they would keep a distance behind at least the length of their Nail. Though they were fully capable of striking further if they so had to, they would not have to, and it would give an appearance of safety.

This thought immediately proves useless, as the elevator is far too small to keep any significant space between them.

The Hollow Knight slides in sideways, holding the blade away from Lemm as much as possible, and stare somewhere past his head.

Their mask is as blank as ever. The bubbling black in their ruined eye is the same, and there might be the slightest bit of fuzz from their hiding beneath the blanket caught in a crack they fail to notice.

time is relative. by which i mean its fake i'm pretty sure

[capitalcurator]

The cramped space of the elevator gives Lemm the excuse to do what anyone does in an elevator, which is to sheath his umbrella, put it under both hands, and use it as a lean-on cane while he waits for the lift to descend. As blank as the Hollow Knight is, Lemm is currently matching it. (Though not for nearly the same reasons.)

When the elevator clanks down to the lower pavement, Lemm leans into it and steps out unshaken. He takes this thing every day, and the clunky machinery is second nature to him now.

"Resting Grounds are this way," he says, already knowing that's stupid and the Hollow Knight has already been there. Foolishness. He pushes out his umbrella and holds it overhead. He could hold out his hand, but the Knight is much bigger and taller than him, and honestly if they go down, he's going down worse.

But he won't move until the Hollow Knight is with him.

[impure_void]

Keeping hunched in the shop and then elevator for a little while is no worse than being locked in seals and chains. They drag their body up properly with only a brief few moments of struggling with their nail, though they stop dead when the edge of their horn clips against Lemm's umbrella.

Inexplicably, the water falling outside seems louder.

--They cannot go to the Resting Grounds unmoving.

They jerk back to life, and in standing, find a tingling weakness in their arm that often persists in their legs even when they lack pain. A subtler type of this sensation is creeping through the rest of their form.

Yet it is not a burn, agony, or the sensation of foreign fluid. The Hollow Knight will endure.

They pause until he is out of the elevator to follow behind him, just a little further back than the last excursion.

...They will pass the Fountain on the way to the Resting Grounds.

Chilly emptiness sinks in their chest, unrelated to the wound, or the fact they are a Vessel.

They give no sign of discomfort; Lemm's direction supersedes their unnecessary desires to do or not do something.